TV-like subscriptions for the Internet?

[bcholmes]

I saw a passing reference to this concept in another journal, and this is the only article about it I can find in Google News. I have no idea how seriously I should take it.

A net-neutrality activist group has uncovered plans for the demise of the free Internet by 2010 in Canada. By 2012, the group says, the trend will be global. Bell Canada and TELUS, Canada's two largest Internet service providers (ISPs), will begin charging per-site fees on most Internet sites, reports reliable sources within TELUS [2012 also coincides with the planned full launching of the so-called "North American Union"].

[...]

I Power was the first group to report on the possible changes. Bell Canada has not returned calls or emails. The plans made by the large telecom businesses would change the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and must pay to see each individual site beyond a certain point.

— North American Union watch: Fascist organizations in Canada and U.S. seek to stop free flow of information on the internet