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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Rebels without a clue......or our federal government in action.

Net Neutrality....a neutral network....
Glenn Beck thinks it is a marxist plot, the progressives claim corporate theocratic takeover, most people just don't care or don't know, yet either way it could drastically affect how you get to use your internet.

Here are the dueling bills-
 (the anti net neutrality bill)  -claimed by republicans
 (the pro net neutrality bill)  -claimed by democrats

Not long bills and not difficult to understand so please read them if you get a chance-you should always read the original legislation.

History-Up until 2005 the internet had a stipulation that no one who provided access to the internet (such as verizon, aol, microsoft, etc.) could tell you which browser to use, which program to search with, what content you could look up, or post to the internet (providing it did not violate copyright, privacy, or minors sexual laws.)  This meant that if you had AOL, you could still use google to search for stuff, or access You tube, or look at Microsoft news network.  Or any variation thereof.  It also got very complicated on the technical bits such as types of data, data rates, transmission sources, network protocols, etc had to be allowed.  What it did, in short, was allow anybody that felt they had a better way of doing things on the internet to try to convince everyone else their way was better and make a million.  This is basically the story of Netscape.

Now-Wether you like it or not, or even notice it, communications companies are trying to tell you how, when, where and what you can access on the internet.  If Verizon (example they do not support Safari, but do support Firefox and Explorer because these are who they have business relationships with-personal experience cited) is your service provider they want you to use their subsidiaries or business partners, not their competition.  So far the FCC has said no to this and was prepared to set up formal regulations making all companies on the internet play nice with each other.  But the Republicans, egged on by talk show radio host Glenn Beck, decided to introduce Senate bill 1836 which restricted the FCC from making any rules about the internet.  The response was the House Resolution 3458 which put the FCC rules into law.  HR 3458 no where restricts content, in fact it specifically has prohibitions in numerous places forbidding the restriction of content.

My take.  This shouldn't be a political issue.  This just makes the republicans look like they are in the big business pocket as so many democrats claim.  The fact that we cannot just let the FCC (not my favorite government agency so it pains me to say this) do their job is just another example of what our government has become.   This issue has become just another talking point for pundits and opinionaters to use for personal gain through ratings and general confusion.

Net neutrality is not an effort by either marxists or theocrats to use the internet to shove their ideologies down our throat.  It is an effort to remind corporations that they thrive when small entrepenures come up with new ideas for them to market to their customers.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post, Jerrie. I've heard about net neutrality of course but I have to admit I didn't know anything about it. Thanks for the those links!

    ReplyDelete

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