VIRTUAL TOLL BOOTHS -- THE END OF THE INTERNET
Is it true that the nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting strategies that would transform the currently free Internet of today into "a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online"?

Wasn't that more or less the AOL strategy of the previous generation? -- pay for content -- although customers paid a monthly fee rather than a per transaction fee. They just cut a deal with Charter communication because that old model wasn't working.

On a related note, AOL and Yahoo are about to introduce a tiered email system, where customers who pay 1 to .25 cents per email receive preferential treatment in the delivery of their email. This idea has been floated before -- supposedly as a strategy for reducing spam. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not planning to sign-up.