The end of internet as we know it

I remember back then in 1992 how lousy BTX service from Deutsche Telekom was: expensive, content-restricted, it was slow, it had an ugly UI and generally sucked. One had to pay for almost every useful page, including banking, news and software downloads. I recall the day–somewhere in 1992–that I managed to access the internet using my old Commodore Amiga 500 and a TCP/IP add-on package. I immediately felt the wind of change–it was like a jail-break.
BTX was dead soon, Minitel in France died shortly thereafter, and other proprietary services like Compuserve followed the path of damnation.

The new, free world of an international, unrestricted and world-spanning communication had begun. I have enjoyed this freedom ever since. If you were imprisoned before, you will know that freedom is one of the most valuable things in life.

Lack of restrictions promotes new business. Restricted environment protects old business. That is the reason behind the efforts of “old economy” players, especially telecommunication and media companies, to undo the unloved liberation of bits and bytes. It seems they finally have found a way of achieving it. The recent bills targeting the unregulated, free net is likely to destroy the principle of the net neutrality and throw us back into the early nineties.

What will be the consequences? Let me guess a few, based on my experience from the “olden days”:

• There will be practically no internationally available web sites. Due to “copyright restrictions” etc., only a very limited offering will be given access to for foreign users. Pay more if you want to access more.
• Phone companies will develop new “plans” that will make using the internet a painful, limited experience for people who don’t want to pay for pricey additional options like:
  - Access to Youtube and other streaming videos (additional option US$ 9,99/month), otherwise only 256 kb/s will be granted (and be subject to change at any time)
  - E-books and MP3-Download from providers like Amazon (additional option US$ 1,99/month)
  - Skype and other IP telephony services (additional option US$ 4,99/month plus 4 cents/call minute)
  - Internet radio (additional option US$ 2,99/month for 15 stations, US$ 9,99 for unlimited number of stations within your country, US$ 19,99 for world-wide internet radio
  -Software downloads (for downloads above 256 KB/s: US$ 9,99 for 1 mbit/s, US$ 19,99 for 8 mbit/s)
  - Email: receiving 49 e-mails free, 1 cent for every additional email. You will be paying for receiving spam as well (the telecoms will never bill you for sending an email, because otherwise they would eliminate spam and lose huge amounts of money). You will be then offered US$ 4,99 option for a spam filter.
  - Reading blogs: US$ 0,99 for up to 30 blogs, 49 cents each additional blog access
  - Online newspapers: US$ 0,99 for the telecommunication company plus provider’s fees (fees will work neatly because once users have to pay for little pieces and types of content, the billing capabilities of internet providers will be comprehensively extended and able to bill users on single-page-basis)
  - Instant messengers: 1 cent/message (both incoming and outgoing)
  - Ping under 50 ms for online games: US$ 5,99/month
  - Own Facebook page: US$ 0,99/month. Every Google search: 1 cent. And so on.
  - Many more….
• In order to ensure “fair and orderly controlled communication”, the central nodes will be connected to the central intelligence agency computers who, of course, will also make “the communication safe and secure”. You know what that means don’t you.
  

You think I’m paranoid? Well then tell me what in the world could stop it from happening?