My congressman, Rick Larsen of Washington state, wanted to know what I thought about net neutrality. So I told him:
Dear Rick,
The internet will no longer continue to be an “amazingly democratic and empowering to non traditional businesses and individuals” if net neutrality is not given form in the law.
We have the example of radio nearly 100 years ago when it was open to the public – clubs, churches, for example. Then it was taken over by business interests and the public was shut out.
The Telecommunications Act Of 1996 has led to the disastrous consolidation of the media into a half-dozen monstrous corporations whose interests are only in the bottom line and not presentation of the news that the citizens of a democracy need to function.
As just one example, in radio, Clear Channel went from fewer than 50 radio stations to more than 1,200 stations, nearly all giving only one viewpoint. In the case of Iraq, that helped in the stampede to war based on a lie.
Allowing the carriers of the Internet free rein to charge selectively will inevitably lead to their giving a preference to the big content providers – e.g., Disney, etc. – at the expense of smaller ones. And later, requiring all content providers (including very small ones, non-profits, schools and municipalities) to pay additional fees to keep their sites accessible to all Web users.
They make no bones about it. The Washington Post has reported that William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts “that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc."
Far more dangerous, is the censorship that will the inevitably follow. Web sites that espouse points of view that don’t fit into the corporate mindset will be sent to the slow lane, or not made available at all.
SaveTheInternet.com gives some examples from the recent past:
* In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.
* In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.
* Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.
* In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.
If net neutrality is not enforced, these few examples will become legion.
Posted by Deck at June 24, 2006 02:46 PM