Saturday, May 13, 2006

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.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for spreading the word, Fuzz...
Love the pic.

~m

Jay Noel said...

That's kinda like putting a toll both at a bunch of common websites. Geez. Yeah, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Maybe I should bottle water and sell that do a bunch of suckers.

Catch said...

they just cant leave things alone can they? dammit....thanks for the heads up.

Pixie said...

This is terrible, it always boils down to money..

Jim said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jim said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
JM said...

Jeez, what next?

:P fuzzbox said...

michael: Thanks for pointing this out to me.

phoenix: When you gonna do 'em?

catch: Just spreading the word. There are many different opinions on this issue. I would suggest Googling them all. Like any issue there are many sides and one can only decide for themselves which one is correct.

mimi: I did also. I find it strange that I side with this issue with the liberals but sometimes politics make strange bedfellows.

:P fuzzbox said...

pixie: Sadly it is the way of the world.

jim: I knew that I could count on you to be on top of the issue. Thanks for the additional input. It is always good to have all the information that one can have.

angel, jr.: 1984 has come and gone but there is still time for a 'Brave New World.'

Anonymous said...

Is there any aspect of life that greed doesn't eventually affect?
:o

Jim said...

[This am the post to which Fuzz am referring to above. It has taken me three tries but the links should now be, dah, actual links. Thanks Fuzzer]

The proposal is before a House Judiciary Committee Task Force -- all Committee members are members of the Task Force.

The proposal would allow network preferences not only for cash payments but based on religious and political points of view.

Here are some links:
PDF file of statement before Telecom and Antitrust Task Force of Amazon.com VP, speaking for Amazon, eBay, Google, IAC, Microsoft, and Yahoo!


Judiciary Committee members

Find address for your representative by entering ZipCode

There's donkey porn?

ella m. said...

What a horrible idea. The internet would become omne big giant pile of advertorial crap, with visibility going to the highest bidder. (heads off to research and begin tiny little part of protest)

:P fuzzbox said...

starbender: None that I know of.

jim: Thanks, seek and ye shall find.

ella: Thanks.

Keshi said...

didnt know...thanks mate!

Keshi.

:P fuzzbox said...

keshi: You are welcome.

Big D said...

I hate when the ignorant talk of shit they know nothing about. Without getting into the technicalities this is impossible. At least for the next 10 to 15 years.

:P fuzzbox said...

Forewarned is forearmed. And I am sorry that not everyone is fucking Einstein.