In the US, it's also seen as a result of lobbyists spending their money to influence policy. They won't be happy until we pay for every single click, I promise.
-zridling
Which the government doesn't have a problem with since it makes web usage easier to control.
Old US government trick. Anytime you don't have the constitutional authority to regulate something you climb into bed with business interests that will price it up high enough that it accomplishes the same thing. (Look at gas prices.)
And as long as these businesses impose a modicum of control over the growth and development of their product or service, they'll be left alone by the government, free to abuse and exploit the public at will. Not to say there won't be some puppet theater (i.e. public hearings, speeches, token attempts to pass pre-doomed legislation, etc.) but that's primarily all any official protest will be.
It's not Internet access the government is afraid of. It's cheap, ubiquitous, unrestricted,
unmonitored, and open access that scares them out of their minds. The government hates lack of regulation. And privacy for individuals. Probably because government itself knows what badness it invariably gets up to whenever it's not sufficiently regulated - or thinks nobody's looking.
Its a well known aspect of human psychology: Every cheater assumes everybody else cheats. Every thief believes everybody steals.
And no bastard I've ever met thinks he's the only bastard in the room.
