America, This Too Is Quite Serious

(A nod to Allen.)

But really, it is. This Internet, the one you’re enjoying right now, is in jeopardy. So please, even if you’ve never taken the notion to contact a Congressman, now would be a great time to do so. And this is such an easy path to take. Red. Blue. Republicrat. Demoblican. For once, this is a simple case of everyone and their mother’s brother standing a very good chance of being universally screwed by the ill-informed actions of our elected officials.

(Unless, of course, any of you are a CEO, COO or CFO in the employ of a major telecommunications conglomerate. In that case, I say two things: “Welcome to my blog” and “Can I have a bag of cash?” Because I’m going to need a bag of cash to pay for premium access to sites that are currently freely* available.)

So stop your websurfing — is that still a viable term? Or all we all just browsing now? Either way, your Friends List, your MySpace and your other online obsessions can wait. Go. Remind yourself of who your Senators are — I’d say your Reps as well, but they’ve already dropped the ball they were handed — and write them an email. Or give them a call. Tell them that you are against S.2686, that you are an influential member of society (because you are) and that you vote (because if you haven’t before, you better this year).

November is only a handful of months away. We need to convince a room full of mostly old, mostly white and mostly out-of-touch men and women that a vote against Net Neutrality (which would actually be a vote for S.2686, confusingly enough) is a third rail that might mortally wound their political careers. Then when you’re done, tell someone else to do the same.

Like Arianna Huffington says, “Run by the average voter the notion that Internet providers are going to be able to control which Web sites are available to them (and give the highest paying mega-sites better treatment than smaller ones), and he or she will tell you that it’s a horrendous idea.” Because it is.

So let’s review. Sign a petition. Pick up the phone. Write your Congressfolk. ASAP. Don’t worry, your friends on MySpace will still be there when you get back.

For now.

* – By free, I don’t mean that I steal my Internet access from the neighbors. But it’s like this … in exchange for your monthly fee, an Internet Service Provider is only providing an on-ramp. Where you go, how far you travel and the places you visit are entirely up to you. The time and money that I spend when I stop, that is also up to me. And that’s how it should stay.

June 13, 2006 – 9:04 pm | By Thomas | Posted in Politics | Comments (2)
  • http://handsoff.org Hands Off The Internet

    This certainly is an important issue, though I have to respectfully disagree with your position on it. As you can see, I work with the Hands Off the Internet coalition, and want to at least introduce you to the other side of this argument.

    Let’s focus for a moment on your footnote. You state that you pay your monthly fee, and that flat fee covers your internet access no matter what you do with it. Fair enough–or is it?

    You pay however much you pay for broadband each month. Your neighbor, let’s say, Grandma Smith, has broadband, and pays exactly what you do. And your other neighbor, Mr. Jones, also pays the same.

    Let’s examine though.

    You log in daily. You run your blog, you check your email, probably read a few dozen other blogs, newspapers, and maybe download some music from time to time.

    Grandma Smith logs in once a week, reads all three of her emails, replies to them, and logs off.

    Mr. Jones, on the other hand, is a power user. Mr. Jones runs a network at his house so he can connect two different computers at once. One, he uses for day to day browsing, maybe a little online gaming, some email checking, the usual. Another, he uses as a server for his constant and high-bandwidth uploading and downloading of movies. He downloads, say, a dozen high quality digital videos a day.

    So at the end of the month, you use twice the bandwidth that Grandma Smith did, but Mr. Jones used 10 times what you did! He put ten times the strain on the system you did, but is paying exactly the same price.

    Is that fair? That’s how it works now. A tiered internet would allow you or Grandma Smith to opt to pay less for your internet service, and would allow Mr. Jones to pony up a few more dollars to have priority access to download all his digital movies.

  • http://www.alendalux.com Nikki

    That’s disingenous. Plenty of providers give tiered access already for “more speed” or whatever. You DO NOT address the central point, which is that if the telcos get what they want, then they will be able to sell our access to the internet like advert space — so if Amazon/Borders is willing to pony up more cash than B&N, well, getting to B&N might become a pain in the ass (they, after all, will not have “priority” in the system) and there I’ll be, using Amazon simply because it’s been made easier for me to access their site rather than B&N. You people would sell newly created “prime real estate” to Wal Mart and Best Buy and whomever else.

    The internet as it is right now is a huge equalizer — and it should stay that way. It’s a level playing field. And if Grandma Smith only checks email once a week, she needs this new-fangled speedy dial up access that’s being offered all over. The internet is the new(ish) public green, and it needs to stay that way, for the good of the people. Fuck the telcos. The access to information and the opportunities provided by the internet to anyone who can visit a public library far outweigh any interest that big business has in making money from it.