When I read this my blood began to boil.

“It's a pity that 72 members of the Blue Dog Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus are deserting one of the fundamental planks of President Obama's platform -- a free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet," Gigi Sohn, executive director of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "The people who those members of Congress represent are the most at risk from the closed, controlling Internet that the phone and cable companies want. They are being betrayed." ~ Washington Post

Net Neutrality should concern us all. It is about assuring a free and open internet without the controlling influence of ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner and a few other major providers.

Some of the schemes floaded by these providers would have them deciding what content you can view and how fast you can download certain content. They want to be able to charge extra fees for certain types or sources of content they don't even own rights to.

Some History of the Internet is useful. In the begining it was developed by the US Military's research arm, DARPA to link university research centers with each other. There was no "World Wide Web" at that time and traffic was limited to text messaging for the most part. It was called ARPANET at that time. ( 1969 ). There were no ISP's then as the system ran on leased data lines through then monopoly AT&T. Fast forward to 1995 when the federal government stopped funding the infrastructure and passed that duty along to a group of long haul network providers. The internet was then, as it is now, managed by a group of university and other "communities" to maintain standards to assure compatibility and cooperation around the world. The introduction of the http protocol ( www ) brought us web pages and the ability to use the internet for commercial and entertainment purposes.

The birth of the ISP allowed the average citizen to purchase a connection to the world of the internet. These companies were not the owners of either the internet or the content made available by others over the internet. At that point and up to this point in time, the internet is a place where everyone is equal. Content you or I provide is treated as equal with content provided by any other source. This is todays "Neutral" internet that we are used to.

In today's world there are always those who would love to take something we already have away then sell it back to us for a profit without ever putting an ounce of creativity into the content we then "purchase" access to. This in its basic form is what we want to avoid by maintaining "Net Neutrality".

Some have complained that net neutrality stifles competition but I remind you that the internet has grown to become what it is precicesly because it is neurtal. Being neutral has inspired many to become internet entrepenuers, including this author. The only competition being stiffled is the few big ISP's who want to take control over other people's work and content and place their own restrictions over the delivery of that content...all without owning it or adding anything of value to it.

What is the job of an ISP? It is to provide a fast, reliable, reasonably priced connection between your home or office and the internet. They can sell services to intereconnect servers, networks, routers and other infrastructure and tie in those costs to the price they charge to sell you a connection to the internet. They rent you the pipes, not the water.

They DO NOT own the internet itself as that is a collection of privatly owned computers, servers and networks containing content that does not belong to the ISPs. The ISPs have no right to control who can or cannot publish their content on the internet or to charge more for certain content than for others unless it is content they themselves, own the rights to. They have no right to charge you extra fees to see my content on the internet than to view other content by other publishers.

We have net neutrality today...it has worked and contributed to the interenet we all know and love. Let's not allow ( through our own government inaction action ) these ISP's to take the internet we know away from us then sell it back piece-meal at whatever price point they choose. Let's not allow them to sell us packages of "internet content" like they sell us cable tv shows. They have to pay a royalty to broadcast TV content but they have no plans to pay royalties to the millions and millions of web sites to let you view them...they just want to collect a royalty from you to see my web site without giving me a dime for having done so.

Do you rent videos? Would you like to be able to watch movies over the interenet from NetFlix or Blockbuster?  This is another area that ISP's who are in competition for videos could impact your choices. Despite the fact that Comcast and other ISPs don't own the rights to the videos Netflix might wish to offer you, because they are in competition with NetFlix, a loss of net neutrality is a tool for Comcast etc. to quash competitors and limit your choices on line.

“They’re shifting to online streaming movies, and to do that you have to have strong broadband speeds,” a technology lobbyist said of Netflix. “Frankly, Comcast has their own video-on-demand service, so they’re probably not too psyched about Internet services streaming movies — it takes revenue from them.”

Call your members of Congress and the FCC and Demand that the internet remain free and open on an equal basis and that ISPs not be permitted to control delivery of anyone's content in any but an neutral way.

Check out Save the Internet's web site too...

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