Net Neutrality

I saw it first on his 'away' message:
Save the whales Internet!
(I added the whales part...)

It looked like a slogan that I'd see as a button pinned to somebody's backpack, probably next to a Nuke Baby Whales button or something.

Save the Internet!

I envision the intarweb leaping over that little boy's outstretched arm back into the ocean like on Free Willy. Or bulldozers geared up to plow straight through the Tubes, obstructed only by chanting protesters with signs. Save the Internet!

Really? I thought as I clicked on the 'save the internet.' Like, what does the internet need saving from?

But then I checked out the website and discovered that apparently, the goodness I can currently experience with the internet has blinded me to what can possibly go wrong.
That's right folks - the internet use that we currently expect as a right granted with internet access could become a privilege, and a pricey one at that.

I IM'd a friend of mine with FreeCulture connections. This seemed like the sort of thing that, if it was legit, he would know about.


Net Neutrality
Is the name for how the internet currently is.
I did not know there was a word for it,
because I was not aware that there could be any other way.

For the long version, click on one of the links above and start reading.

For the short version, think of how cool it is that so many different individuals can offer so many different kinds of information for different audiences on the internet. Then think of TV and how the news is dominated by a few main channels. If you don't like the sort of news they cover, or if you want to see a different perspective, that's just too bad. Think about how much it would suck if the internet was like TV in that way.
(Example: you probably wouldn't be reading this. The reason I started a blog was so that I could get some writing practice at pseudo publishing. No way I would ever get this published in real life. I would never get my content through the established companies.)

The way I understand it that currently the Internet is nondiscriminatory in that its only job is to move information. No matter who you are, it will move your information limited only by the physical abilities of your particular connection. A breach of Network Neutrality would result in some users being given 'preference' for connection speed. Larger companies would be able to shell out the extra cash to keep their websites moving quickly while small blogs would load at a snail's pace because there's no way we could compete.

One of the coolest things about the internet is diversity of users and content options. It's a great alternative to mainstream news, and a highly effective information network. This diversity and availability of content would be threatened or extinguished by Internet Service Providers charging a fee for effective internet service.

There is a serious threat,
but there is also enough of a 'Save the Internet' voice that nobody's going to make any sudden moves just yet. It is worth looking into and taking action on however, because there are no current legal protections for Net Neutrality. If the current pro-Net-Neutrality voice lets down it's guard, the ISPs could launch their fees and there would be no laws in place to stop them.