Speaking Neutrality

One of the cornerstones of the internet has been network neutrality. This same exact principle behind the phone system. This means that each and every website is given fair and exact treatment by the internet. Large corporations like McDonalds website loads no faster or comes in more clearly than Joe Shmo selling homemade beer bongs. Just like no call is given priority over any other call and is given the same opportunity for a crisp clean call.

The large cable providers such as AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress to change this. They would like to prioritize sites paying a fee to load faster and have greater digital clarity than those sites that did not pay them their blackmail fee.

I know what you are asking. What does this mean to me. Well here are a few changes that I can foresee if this goes into effect.

1) On-Line Personals: Those with the bucks to pony up can be assured of the utmost in digital clarity while less incomed individuals pics will load slower than porn videos on dial up. Leaving everyone with the opportunity to check out skanks and butt ugly boneheads with cash in scarified living color but some poor hottie and beefcake are left grainy and unviewable.

2) Small Business: Every small business on the net will load like molasses but the companies forking over the cash will practically pop off your monitor. People will be frustrated by the long wait from some mom and pop operation and swoop down on the goods sold by some big company.

3) Blogging: If you think blogger is a pain now. Wait'll this hits. The only blogs that will come up worth a crap will be hawking loan consolidations and cheap Viagra.

4) Free Porn: There will be no such thing as free porn. All porn will be watered down for the masses as Playboy and other large pay-sites scramble to get the most hits by forking over large payments to the internet providers. No more donkey porn, no more foot fetish fanatics, no more obscure fetishes of any kind. You might as well watch underwear ads on Network TV.

There is something you can do. MoveOn is an organization dedicated to keeping the net neutral. I do not agree with this organizations politics in general but on this issue, I am fully in agreement. For more information click here. To sign their on-line petition click here.

Many Thanks to Michael at Smoke and Mirrors for passing this on.

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I would also like to add that many feel that this is unnecessary due to the fact that the free market should correct itself due to the theory that people will just switch internet providers to choose the one that best fits their needs. It is also a hot issue among conservatives, who do not wish for any further government regulation in our lives, and that may very well be a valid point.

There is precedent for this law as it is modeled after the one that rules telephone communication. I know that this post paints a rather far fetched scenario but some truly feel that it could come to this. While I do not trust our government as far as I could throw them, I trust major corporations even less.

The choice is really yours to make. I can only say that it is an issue that will affect all users of the net one way or another, sooner or later.