The Internets Are Broken
I normally refrain from straight-up political posting, but Net Neutrality is potentially in danger of going the way of independently-owned radio stations. The internet is the only mass medium with serious democratic potential in history, and to undermine that democratic potential would be a real shame. Network Neutrality has effectively been the first amendment of the network society, preventing corporations from controlling which sites open most easily for browsers using a pay-for-play type schematic.
While I realize the internet is not some sort of utopian society where we all get equal access and we all get a fair shake, it does give more people more access than say, the local network television stations, radio stations or newspapers. We need places where people can say any crazy thing they like and reach an audience. Further, we need a space in which readers/browsers/viewers can determine what content is important for themselves. In summary, if you give a shit (and you’re reading the internet, so you should), check out this text from MoveOn.org:
Hi,
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.
Politicians don’t think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T’s CEO, who openly says, “The internet can’t be free.”
The free and open Internet is under seige–can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet
A list of all the ways you might be affected by Net Neutrality is located on the bottom of this link: http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html
Thanks!
The whole, “the internet can’t be free thing” really strikes a nerve with me.
Just as a counterpoint, here’s John Perry Barlow talking about intellectual property. Take that AT&T CEO.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Net neutrality is one of those issues that, at first, seems straight forward and reasonable. Why would anyone want to see content on the internet blocked? Well, the problem with net neutrality is that it is not as simple as that. No one wants to block content, but the question is over the propriety of building a tiered network structure that would cost content providers more to use but would faster, steadier content to consumers. Get more, pay more. Net neutrality legislation would block this progress and growth of the internet, not save content from censorship.