Why isn’t anyone talking about savetheinternet.com?
Freedom of speech and open e-market are being directly threatened by the senate and the house right now. The Network Neutrality Act ensures that there is no corporate regulation to internet access in the manner that they mean to install. There is a bill being voted on that will dissolve the act, allowing the communication corporations to buy up the control of access and install a Tier System. This Tier System will affect which websites a user is able to access with reasonable speed. For example, you could go to MySpace.com with ease. But to access anything else that doesn’t fork over the money to get into the top tiers, they will delay your ability to view them.
By that same process, you would have to considerably wait to look at your own webpage. Or practically any other webcomic or website you enjoy that can’t afford to sign up for the tier system. Makers will have to spend money to make their strip, publish their strip, and allow people to view their strip with any convenience.
Folks, this shit is fucked up. And they’re trying to slip it right past us. I urge you to visit savetheinternet.com and do everything you can to help. Get the word out. Tell everyone you know. Call and/or write your congressmen. This threatens not only for our little corner of the web, but for free speech as well.
There is nothing more important in webcomics than this. No book being compiled, no landmark being reached, no collaboration, no interview, no podcast, no webcomic more important than this right now. If they pass the bill and Network Neutrality is destroyed, what we have here right now will change forever for the worse.
Nobody is making a big deal about it because this is one of those things that will have little to no impact on the web itself. Few companies, even large ones, will pay extortion money to telecom companies to keep their sites going. Especially since there will always be providers willing to stick to net neutrality, even if it isn\’t required.
I think ultimatly though this is going to be bad for the consumer, that is, I think its going to be just another lousy excuse to raise prices for all. Just watch, if these bills go through we\’ll see providers introduce a tier system based on cable TV. The lower your viewing package the less ready access you get.
In other words: its just another form of dial up vs. broadband.
It was inevitable, Phil.
Once money started showing up in the hands of what are essntially small businesses, large business looked for a way to change the laws to allow them to take control.
I dont share Donny\’s beliefs that everything will remain sunshine and lollipops for the webgeek as it is now. The web will continue to become the marketing device in everyone\’s homes it has been transforming to. But hey, it was good ride. A decade of free porn and MP3s!
No regrets!
Yes William, thats what I was implying: that we\’ll all be farting rainbows at the end of this. Gee, I wonder if your thinly veiled insults are to mask the fact that you\’re just parroting what others have told you. Kinda like you ALWAYS do.
Look, there are THOUSANDS, hell, maybe MILLIONS of websites out there. There is no way in hell that Telecom companies will be able to get blood money from each and everyone of them and have a practical number of websites to offer for their services to still be of use.
I can appreciate that people are worried about this. I can appreciate people worrying about the free speech issues. But its not a matter of free speech. It can\’t be. Which is more practical? Demanding money which would likely only be paid by a handful of companies or introducing a system where the consumers themselves have to pay more to get full access? Keep in mind that there are multitudes of telecom companies. No business is going to pay each and every one of them to ensure that their site(s) remain(s) viewable.
And even if this does become a worst case scenario (as its looking more and more likely that its not) the laws would be struck down so damn fast (and THIS is where free speech would come into play) that it\’d make the telecom companies\’ heads spin. And this would only be after they started showing prejudice in the choices of what their users are allowed access to. That is, that things become so limited in allowed content that it\’ll be impossible to ignore.
And lets go a step further shall we? Even if the bills pass, and even if the laws remain intact whilst the Telecoms rule access with an iron fist there will still be, there will always be companies willing to stick to net neutrality if only because it\’ll ensure business for them.
The internet as a whole isn\’t going to turn into AOL. If you wanna fight it, fine. Good, it is a terrible thing they\’re doing. But at least stop arguing it from the \”they\’ll take teh interweb awayz from us!!\”