Content carve up of net begins (BBC)

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Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at the way that cable firms are starting to shackle the net access they offer.

When cable companies began promoting high-speed internet services nearly a decade ago, many branded them "the internet on cable".

Years later, those services are gradually morphing into "the internet as cable" as broadcasters and service providers steadily move toward the delivery of content online that bears a striking resemblance to the conventional cable model.
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Cable distributors determine channel choices, geographic distribution, and commercial substitution (typically with input from a broadcast regulator), offer only limited interactivity, and quietly even possess the ability to stop consumers from recording some programs.

Until recently, the internet was precisely the opposite, offering unlimited user choice, continuous interactivity, and technological capabilities to copy and remix content.

That is gradually changing as broadcasters seek to re-assert greater geographic control over their content and service providers experiment with cable-like models for prioritised content delivery.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094020.stm