Net neutrality is on the agenda. BIG TIME!
ISPs are already making decisions in their daily practices that completely go against the principle of net neutrality. For a couple of years now they have been throttling torrent and other P2P traffic. And I can almost understand their point of view. Internet piracy is rampant, and the amount of traffic from P2P apps must be very large indeed and overloading their networks. But ISPs generally charge people for a fixed amount of data per month, and why should they interfere in how we as use that data? Why do they think they have a right to control our use of the Internet. It’s not really their job is it…
The basis principle of net neutrality is that ‘Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.’ It’s the one thing that makes the Internet free. We can choose our own content. It’s the only antidote to the corporatisation of the Internet. And it’s a free choice. As it is, Surfer A can hang out at MSN, Facebook and eBay, while surfer B can visit torrent sites, alternative media sites and blogs. If someone wants to expose themselves to corporate sites and mass advertising, well go for it. Personally I’m more interested in what Joe Blog has to say, as opposed to what the corporate world is trying to sell me, but that’s my perogative and freedom.
But now they’re planning on going further. This is war. This is potentially the end of the Internet as we know it. Now, this is a very complex issue, and I’m not an expert on this at all. But I do feel very passionately about freedom of expression and freedom from the “corporate world” as I put it. Now it seems that Virgin Media in the UK has declared net neutrality to be ‘a load of bollocks‘ and is determined to change the way we use the net. Their idea is that content providers will pay them to be on the ‘fast’ internet, otherwise they will be relegated to the ‘bus lane’. Now from the content provider’s perspective, the way I see it, it’s close to blackmail. Either you pay us or we’ll make it difficult for our 150,000 users to access your content. But to the end user, it’s clearly breaking the principle of net neutrality. ISPs have NO PLACE actively interfering in what content the end users access. It is so clearly an abuse of their market position. My estimation of Richard Branson just took a huge nosedive.
But the thing with the net is that we have POWER. It has already been shown that united, the millions of internet users have more power than ANY corporation in the entire world. It’s logical. And the way the internet is now facilitates the communication necessary to harness that power. Blogs, forums, web sites, emails, whatever. Spreading the word is what it’s all about. So get to it. Read up about it. Spread this word.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html
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