Should broadband data hogs pay more? ISP economics say “no” - Ars Technica Big ISPs usually rely on peered connections to other major ISPs, connections which incur no per-bit cost. As for the cables in the ground, they've been there for years. The equipment back at the headend must be installed once, after which it runs for years. Cable node splits and DOCSIS hardware upgrades are relatively cheap. Requesting one additional bit does not necessarily incur any additional charge to the ISP. *** Guardian of the GPL: Online advertising is becoming “a perfect despotism” - Ars Technica The problem, Moglen explained to Ars, is that the Internet today undermines human autonomy, and seeks to control our behaviour. "The idea that advertising is still primarily about displaying an advertisement is part of the culprit here." Major platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, which Moglen collectively refers to as "the machine," are experimenting with readers billions of times a day in order to capture our attention and to change our behaviour, without our understanding and rarely with our informed consent. *** Website for models can be sued for not warning users about rapists - Ars Technica Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, and other online companies had told the court (PDF) that such a ruling would have a chilling effect on the Web. In a court filing, they said that the CDA shields website operators "from the risks, burdens, and uncertainty of lawsuits that would hold them liable for hosting or facilitating online exchanges of…
