Net Neutrality And Why You Should Care

Hmmm, I had planned on blogging about this, and now I see Curt has taken up the cause and stolen my thunder. Doesn't matter, this is an issue that the more people know about, the better.

The concept of Net Neutrality is pretty simple. It basically means that when you're on the internet all sites should be freely available. Here's where the problem lies, some ISPs want be able to provide preference to your access. Basically that means if a company were to pay the ISP, they could make it so that you may not be able to access their competitors websites. Or alternatively, the ISP could degrade access to services that compete with ISP itself.

Equal access on the internet seems like a pretty simple idea. It's somewhat akin to the idea of free speech. If someone were to try and prevent you from access to information, or rather, prevent someone from being able to express themselves, that would certainly be seen as a violation of our right for free speech.

For some reason, some members of congress don't see denying access as being the same (possibly because they're accepting campaign donations from the companies that want to charge for access), and think it should be okay for ISPs to give preferential access. This is mostly because some of the larger telecom (AT&T, I'm definitely looking at you) are making big contributions and pushing this agenda. I mean, why wouldn't they, they stand a make a ton of cash and control the future direction of the internet if they get their way.

This isn't the best description of Net Neutrality I've seen, but it does do a fairly decent job of summing it up and has some humor in there also.



If you want the more serious, complete and well reasoned version of what Net Neutrality is, then check this video over on YouTube.

When we were at the Vienna Festival the other day, I went to the tents of the two political candidates and asked their stance Net Neutrality. Andrew Hurst was there in person. He definitely was against it, problem is, he's not actually in Congress. He seems like a nice enough guy though (must remember to find out from Curt what the AMP's stance is on this guy).


Tom Davis is in congress, and while not there in person, also had a presence there in a tent with about 15 volunteers. Sadly, none of them knew his stance on Net Neutrality (worse even, none of them even knew what the issue was and kept trying to give me his position on the moratorium on internet taxes). I've tried to find out Tom Davis' stance online, but his website doesn't actually list his position. I've also tried contacting Mr Davis via email, but I never got a response (which is why I asked about this at the tent). From what I read online, I think he actually voted for the amendment that would have preserved Net Neutrality. So for the moment (or until I learn otherwise), he has escaped my wrath.