Network Neutrality Debate Heats Up - Help Save It

Do you enjoy being able to visit any site that you wish (for the most part) on the internet? Being able to use any service that you want? If network neutrality dies, then so does your freedom to use what you want on the internet. Network neutrality will allow you to visit any content providers on the internet without your ISP interfering in your surfing habits.

Say you like to use Google for searching the internet. You type Google.com into your address bar, and notice that it's going incredibly slow, or won't load at all. So, you decide to try another search engine, say, Yahoo!, and it loads just fine. But, for all you know, Yahoo! made a deal with your ISP to give it "premier" access to all their customers. There's a video, here (hosted on YouTube), by Alex Curtis that better explains what could very well happen if Net Neutrality gets voted down.

The debate over network neutrality is heating up as a congressional committee prepares to take the issue up next week.

The House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Telecommunications and Antitrust is holding a hearing Tuesday on whether the Internet should operate like a utility, with equal service, or whether providers should be able to provided tiered access and pricing.

Source

SaveTheInternet.com is an activist site trying to get people to notify their representatives, senators, congressman, etc., to vote FOR Net Neutrality. I urge you all to do the same. You can see how your representative has voted on Net Neutrality, here. You can see that there are many more red dots (voted against Net Neutrality) than there are green dots (voted for Net Neutrality).

If you love the internet as it is now, then please help save it.

www.savetheinternet.com...
More information on Net Neutrality
(I wasn't quite sure if this belonged here, but it IS a current event. A Mod can move it if they wish)

[edit on 4-22-2006 by dreamlandmafia]

[edit on 4-22-2006 by dreamlandmafia]

If this happens, then I expect that a second internet sponsored by Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. to be up and running within a year of this coming into affect.

There is a reason why people didn't buy into the proprietary POS services that were common during the 90s.

Doesn't Google already violate net neutrality?

I cannot get to Google.com

Every time I use google or type it into my browser it automatically takes me to google.ca and only allows me to use google.ca.

I can't help but wonder if search results are regional specific and that this is a way to censor information in certain countries.
.

I have a thread on ATS that covers this from a while back, nothing but a power grab and an attempt to curb the flow of information that is spilling out into the mainstream.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

That's not what this is about. This is about ISP's charging companies for an "express" rout on their fibre, and anyone else who uses the "regular" routs will have their bandwidth choked.

The reason why ISP's are doing this, is so they can discourage people from using a competitors VOIP service, basically forcing people to use a "preffered" service provider in order to get the quality of service you would expect. Remember, these service providers usually provide Telephone service, Television, and Internet. They want to lock you into their products in a similiar fashion that MSFT locked people into using Windows.

This isn't about websites, this is about things like Net Radio, TV, and Telephony.

[edit on 22-4-2006 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by sardion2000
This isn't about websites, this is about things like Net Radio, TV, and Telephony.

It's not JUST about websites, yes. They could limit website acess, VoIP services, etc. if they wanted too, for whatever reason. They want to make the internet tiered to access specific services.

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia

Originally posted by sardion2000
This isn't about websites, this is about things like Net Radio, TV, and Telephony.

It's not JUST about websites, yes. They could limit website acess, VoIP services, etc. if they wanted too, for whatever reason. They want to make the internet tiered to access specific services.

Well my Uncle works for Ma Bell. I was talking to him about this very issue a while back when I first heard about it and he said this wasn't aimed at Websites at all. He said websites are barely a blip on the radar for them, it's aimed at bandwidth intensive applications like those I mentioned above, which makes sense when you think about it. They see the potential windfall profits in contolling access to these killer appz.

They are already using this technology to choke Older Bittorrent clients through traffic shaping software.

He also said that the main reason why they want to do this, is because of companies and services like: Itunes, Vonage, Skype, Bittorrent, etc.

They all represent threats and opportunities for the telephone and cable companies.

[edit on 22-4-2006 by sardion2000]

[edit on 22-4-2006 by sardion2000]