This Is Important
This is going to seem boring, but bear with me here. There's a huge, explosive action scene at the end. You just have to wait for it.
Net Neutrality. Learn these words. It's a big fucking deal. A deal wherein the country's telecommunications companies stage a hostile takeover of the First Amendment.
Right now, if you log onto a web site like Google, or Buzzflash!, or even this one, you're using an Internet Service Provider to do so--more than likely, that's a cable company or a phone company. They control how the data gets from the web servers to your computer. As of today, they can't prioritize that data.
They can't say, "Hmmm... We have a deal with Yahoo! so from now on, it will load faster than Google."
They can't say, "Hmmm... We are direct competitors with Time Warner in most cable markets, so CNN's web site is going to run verrrry slow in June."
They can't say, "Hmmm... Atrios's website contains political views that make us extremely nervous, and since we're all of course participating in a War on Terror, we should watch what we say. Atrios's website is not appropriate for our customers. You can't read Atrios."
As of today.
That may be changing in the very near future. Telecom companies, who since the 1996 Telecom Act have had an almost unimpeded ability to write the legislation that affects their industry, have gone back to the trough for another dive.
AT&T/Time Warner/BellSouth don't see why they should provide the wires to carry their competitors' content at full speed. They see money in deals to make some websites "first class" and some "economy." They see money in providing two or three-tier web access to their customers--some will get unfettered access to all sites (for a hefty fee), some will not. One CEO actually compared his vision of internet pricing to an airline.
I repeat--a telecommunications executive wants his business to be able to price their service like an airline. Does ANYONE in the world want this?
The House of Representatives had a debate on Net Neutrality before deciding that it wasn't worth protecting. That debate was designed to go under the radar--it lasted 20 minutes. The entire future of the greatest information provider that humanity has ever known was given 20 minutes on the floor of the House before it was shot down like a rabid dog. But there's still hope.
There's a bill before the Senate at this very moment to protect Net Neutrality. So far, it has the unqualified support of 12 senators. And that support is bipartisan, by the Republican definition of the term--ONE of them is a Republican. Olympia Snowe of Maine helped write the bill. 4 senators have come out to explicity oppose Net Neutrality--all of them Republican. (Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is one of them. It's possible that he is the single worst person occupying a seat in the US Senate. That may seem like a cheap shot, but his public statements and voting record show that he is against everything Good and in favor of everything Evil.) Every other senator is Weighing Their Options, including people like Ted Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein, who you would expect to want to protect their constituents.
Here's where you call. You write. You corner your representatives at town meetings. This isn't something where you can say, "Oh, I'm in California. I know my senators will do the right thing." You can't rely on anyone except the 12 people on THIS list.
Do it. Do it now.
(Here comes the action scene...)
BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!
(Wow. That was something, wasn't it? Did you see how those cars....? And that rocket....? Shit, man. Shit.)
Net Neutrality. Learn these words. It's a big fucking deal. A deal wherein the country's telecommunications companies stage a hostile takeover of the First Amendment.
Right now, if you log onto a web site like Google, or Buzzflash!, or even this one, you're using an Internet Service Provider to do so--more than likely, that's a cable company or a phone company. They control how the data gets from the web servers to your computer. As of today, they can't prioritize that data.
They can't say, "Hmmm... We have a deal with Yahoo! so from now on, it will load faster than Google."
They can't say, "Hmmm... We are direct competitors with Time Warner in most cable markets, so CNN's web site is going to run verrrry slow in June."
They can't say, "Hmmm... Atrios's website contains political views that make us extremely nervous, and since we're all of course participating in a War on Terror, we should watch what we say. Atrios's website is not appropriate for our customers. You can't read Atrios."
As of today.
That may be changing in the very near future. Telecom companies, who since the 1996 Telecom Act have had an almost unimpeded ability to write the legislation that affects their industry, have gone back to the trough for another dive.
AT&T/Time Warner/BellSouth don't see why they should provide the wires to carry their competitors' content at full speed. They see money in deals to make some websites "first class" and some "economy." They see money in providing two or three-tier web access to their customers--some will get unfettered access to all sites (for a hefty fee), some will not. One CEO actually compared his vision of internet pricing to an airline.
I repeat--a telecommunications executive wants his business to be able to price their service like an airline. Does ANYONE in the world want this?
The House of Representatives had a debate on Net Neutrality before deciding that it wasn't worth protecting. That debate was designed to go under the radar--it lasted 20 minutes. The entire future of the greatest information provider that humanity has ever known was given 20 minutes on the floor of the House before it was shot down like a rabid dog. But there's still hope.
There's a bill before the Senate at this very moment to protect Net Neutrality. So far, it has the unqualified support of 12 senators. And that support is bipartisan, by the Republican definition of the term--ONE of them is a Republican. Olympia Snowe of Maine helped write the bill. 4 senators have come out to explicity oppose Net Neutrality--all of them Republican. (Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is one of them. It's possible that he is the single worst person occupying a seat in the US Senate. That may seem like a cheap shot, but his public statements and voting record show that he is against everything Good and in favor of everything Evil.) Every other senator is Weighing Their Options, including people like Ted Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein, who you would expect to want to protect their constituents.
Here's where you call. You write. You corner your representatives at town meetings. This isn't something where you can say, "Oh, I'm in California. I know my senators will do the right thing." You can't rely on anyone except the 12 people on THIS list.
Do it. Do it now.
(Here comes the action scene...)
BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!
(Wow. That was something, wasn't it? Did you see how those cars....? And that rocket....? Shit, man. Shit.)
posted by Matthew at 10:12 AM
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