Tag Archives: net neutrality

Consumers Stand to Pay More for Internet if FCC’s Rules Pass

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take actionDo you want to pay more for your internet service? That is what will happen if the FCC’s proposed “Net Neutrality” rules pass. I put the words Net Neutrality in quotes, because the FCC’s plan isn’t the Net Neutrality we need or have been promised numerous times.

What’s Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality – and the internet as we know it – protects consumers from ISPs slowing down, degrading, and even blocking online content and access. If there’s a service out there, and your internet provider provides a competing service, Net Neutrality protects us consumers from your internet provider slowing down, degrading, or even blocking that competing service. If you don’t think this matters, Comcast is currently in talks to buy Time Warner Cable, and expand their market share of broadband services further. Comcast also has video on demand services and owns NBC. Imagine Comcast now degrading Netflix or Amazon Prime to the point its unwatchable, just so you have to use their service. Speeds already are being played with by internet providers.

Think you can go elsewhere and this is what competition is for? Well, over 70% of all Americans have only one choice when it comes to internet service.

The idea of Net Neutrality is to keep the internet a free and open platform for innovation and expression.

The FCC’s rules lays out three things:

  1. That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers and users all relevant information as to the policies that govern their network;
  2. That no legal content may be blocked; and
  3. That ISPs may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.

That’s all great, but the FCC is also giving permission for internet service providers to create fast and slow lanes of the internet. Instead of blocking or degrading like I described above, instead, ISPs will force content producers to pay up, or be relegated to the slow lane. Of course those ISPs who have their own content will make sure their offerings are always the best they can be. That’s a two-tiered internet, and those costs, will be shouldered and passed along to consumers. Be prepared to pay more for your internet services. Generally, the United States already pays more, for slower internet, than the rest of the world.

How will this impact the “geek” community? We’ll wind up paying more for streaming video, and see our download speeds decreased. Our video game experience will lag, unless someone pays up. Basically, things will get slower, and unusable. It’s not just us consumers who should care about this. Content providers need to stand up too, or they’ll be extorted forced asked to pay to deliver their content at reasonable speeds.

So what can we do? We’ve stopped legislation before when the “internet” has come together. Speak out now through this action that the Entertainment Consumers Association has put together. You’ll be able to let your members of Congress, the President, and the FCC know how you stand on the issue.

If this passes, the definition of an “open internet” is, the more you pay up, the more open it can get. It will be a death knell for Net Neutrality, online innovation, and our experience as consumers.

Disclosure: I consult for the Entertainment Consumers Association but was not paid for this post

Help Save Net Neutrality

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take actionOn Tuesday January 14th, advocates of free speech and an open internet were delivered a blow when the Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Net Neutrality rules in Verizon v. FCC.

There are many different definitions of what exactly Net Neutrality is, but it’s basically the ability to the go where you want and do what you want on the internet without extra charges, artificially slow accessibilities or blockages.

Net Neutrality protects us the consumer. It stops internet providers from slowing down, degrading, or even blocking content or access to online content. When over 70% of Americans have only one option for internet providers in their area, this is a big deal.

But here’s possible scenarios in a world without Net Neutrality, and outlines why this is important:

  • Your internet provider provides you the option to buy voice over internet from them, so they decide to degrade or block the competition, making them the only real option,
  • Your internet provider owns some of the content it delivers (for example Comcast and NBC) and block other services to watch the same or similar content so you have to use their video on demand service,
  • An exclusive deal is struck where a service, say a video game platform or digital comics platform, pay and become the only distributor or platform of that content through your internet provider,
  • Business pay, or people have to pay, to have their content delivered quicker, in an age where ever millisecond counts (think stock trading or online ticket buying). The haves can outpace the have-nots when it comes to online activities.

Internet1I can go on and on with these types of scenarios, and AT&T is already trying to cut deals to deliver some content quicker (that destroys their entire claims for the need of data caps, but that’s another issue). The idea of Net Neutrality is to keep the internet a free and open platform for innovation and expression.

But even though the DC court has said that the FCC cannot enforce network neutrality as it has in the past, it did say it is their job to regulate the internet and protect consumers. Net Neutrality is in the interest of websites, consumers, and the internet as a whole.

The Entertainment Consumers Association has set up a simple form where you can write your Congressmen, the President and the FCC and ask them to enshrine these rules that will past the test of court.

Full disclosure: I act as the Advocacy Director for the Entertainment Consumers Association

Symbolia and Common Cause team up for a Net Neutrality Comic: Verizon vs. the FCC

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Symbolia and Common Cause have teamed up to publish the comic strip Big Deal, Big Money, a comic takedown of Verizon’s attempts to overturn Net Neutrality protections.

Net Neutrality is a principle that ensures that like content is treated equally on the internet (an oversimplified explanation). For example since Comcast provides you internet phone, they couldn’t slow down or block Skype, a competitor. They could also force you to pay money to access certain services or extort money from companies to be carried.

Obviously telecommunication companies aren’t too keen on the rules and there’s a lot of forces trying to overturn the rules including Verizon who have gone to court over it.

The comic breaks down the obscene amounts of money, dirty tricks, and key players in this fight. The goal? Let citizens know what’s truly at stake if Verizon wins in a fun and non-wonkified way.

Big Deal, Big Money was produced in partnership between Common Cause and Symbolia, and illustrated by S. Caldwell.

After reading the below you can take action!

Wil Wheaton Defends BitTorrent

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Wil Wheaton, he of Star Trek: The Next Generation and “Don’t be a dick” fame, took to his blog on Monday to defend BitTorrent and stand up for Net Neutrality.  In the post he shows the positives of using Torrents such as increased download speeds, but it’s his commentary on the entertainment industry that’s the most intriguing.  The post opens:

I frequently find myself in an unpopular position in the entertainment industry: I believe in network neutrality, I don’t believe that piracy is the end of the world as we know it (I particularly don’t believe that a download or file shared automatically equals a lost sale*) and I don’t believe in crippling the Internet to protect a business model that desperately needs to change.

In his post he goes on to say:

Some ISPs are blocking all bittorrent traffic, because bittorrent can be used to share files in a piratical way. Hollywood lobbying groups are trying to pass laws wich would force ISPs to block or degrade bittorrent traffic, too. Personally, I think this is like closing down freeways because a bank robber could use them to get away, which I know is an imperfect comparison, but is the best I can do after a night of not-especially-good sleep.

This comes out around the same time the band Counting Crows is using the torrent service to spread some of their latest album in hopes of gaining more fans.  We’ve seen some comic book creators take to torrents to promote their works, it’ll be interesting to see if more are to follow.

Tuesday Twitter Fun – Palin, Bachmann, Hannity, Net Neutrality and Anger

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It’s the latest entry into our Tuesday Twitter Fun series of posts.  This week just features two writers who are regulars that don’t have an issue with letting folks know what they think.

Ron Marz, who’s no stranger to this column, lets his thoughts be known about Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Sean Hannity.  You can follow him at http://twitter.com/ronmarz.

Ron Marz

Ed Brubaker hits two subjects in a series of tweets.  He first plugs the issue of Net Neutrality, which all who spend time on the web should care about.  For those that care about the subject you can take action right now and write your elected officials.  Also touched upon is the anti-incumbent sentiment that’s brewing in the country.  You can follow Brubaker at http://twitter.com/brubaker.

Ed Brubaker

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