Net Neutrality - Save the Internet!!!

Hello all!

Welcome to our first callzen.com blog. Zen Computing (ZCSS) is the premier source in SW Michigan for computer repair, web design, website hosting, computer networking and even computer training. In this post I want to talk about something that may affect every internet user in the country. It’s called Network Neutrality. If you haven’t heard of it I am not surprised. Despite many grass roots organizations trying to bring the peoples will to Congress, the lobbyists for the big companies have as usual, overpowered our voices. Today in America there are a handful of media companies that own EVERYTHING. When I say everything I seriously mean every-thing. These behemoths contain the likes of:

AOL / Time Warner
AT&T Corp
General Electric (NBC Universal)
News Corporation
Viacom, Inc.
Bertelsmann
Walt Disney Company
Comcast Corp
Sony

Although these entities are constantly changing their names (“Cingular’s name is now AT&T” as their newest ads claim), buying up competition and merging with each other they effectively control almost everything we see, read and hear. Magazines, newspapers, radio stations, television and so on. Why is this bad? This is precisely the reason we see breaking news about Paris Hilton’s sock color or Anna Nicole Smith’s “baby daddy” instead of real news or programming. If you want to be spoon fed your cherry-picked daily news this may not be a problem for you. I however enjoy getting the full story and having the freedom to decide for myself without bias. This leads me to my favorite source of information, the internet. As of the 1996 telecom act a concept called “net neutrality” was outlined and became the standard for all information crossing through the net. In essence it means that all packets of information are to be treated equally regardless of their type, content or origin. This means that my blog is given the same anonymous treatment as the New York Times website, or Google, etc. This is infinitely important to the internet as it’s what makes using the web so great. You can choose to go anywhere you want unhindered and of your own accord. It’s all about the personal choice. Currently all the ISP’s (internet service providers) and Telcos (telephone companies) can do is route your traffic without actually looking at what it contains. It’s all treated equally without any preferential treatment. An email to your grandmother is treated the same as a million dollar order for computer parts. This works great and again it’s what makes the internet, well…. The internet. So, for the last couple of years the lobbyists of these media companies have been pushing our Congress (*COUGH* - Ted Stevens from Alaska - *COUGH*) to redraft this legislation and leave out net neutrality language. Why on earth would they do that? Well, for starters I suspect some campaign contributions had something to do with it. In reality I don’t know why, but I can tell you it will change everything. In hearing Senator Stevens testify in Congress about the reasons we need this it fills me with one clear thought. He has obviously no idea what he is talking about. You can listen for yourself here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE

The last person I want to decide how the internet works is someone like Ted Stevens. Note to Sen. Stevens – it’s NOT a series of tubes!

In any case, he has been confused into thinking there is a problem by the big companies so he will legislate the freedom right out of the internet and turn it into nothing more than a glorified television. Likely the main reason companies want to remove this neutrality is they see the large amounts of money that companies like Google are making and they claim, Youtube, Google, etc are “getting a free lunch.” To me this is ridiculous and anyone who has ever looked into the price of a commercial T1 line or a connection like Google and Youtube pay for can tell you it is definitely NOT free. Quite simply the ISP’s and Telcos want to provide you with internet service and also tell you what to see and become content providers. I have been asked by local Michigan members of Congress what the difference is between this type of content and something that say, Google offers? The main difference is that you choose to visit these other sites and if we loose the neutral aspect of the internet packet we risk loosing the real choice the web provides. A member of Congress from Michigan who will remain nameless is quoted as saying “there is no real evidence that these large companies have or ever will do anything wrong or take advantage of consumers…” without Network Neutrality. This is unfortunately incorrect. It happens all the time and a few years ago I stumbled onto an instance just by chance. AOL was trying to implement what amounted to an email tax and although most AOL users were oblivious to this a grass roots organization was created to create public awareness. For months AOL was blocking any email through their service with the address www.dearaol.com in the message. I found this out by mistake and immediately told some friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who in turn had news stories in the LA Times and the Boston Globe within hours of this surfacing. AOL of course complained this was a “glitch” but I think we can all assume what was really happening. Actually here is the real message i received from AOL that day:

Error 554 HVU:B1

* 554 HVU:B1

http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvub1.html

EXPLANATION:

There is at least one URL in your email that is generating substantial complaints from AOL members.

Considering this matter was largely unknown to AOL member subscribers I highly doubt they were complaining en mass about a simple information website employing no spyware and fully Can-Spam Act Compliant. If their complaints were substantial I would like to see the LOGS / requests. If undesired email is being blocked now, just imagine what will happen when all internet traffic is broken down, categorized and filtered as a standard.

In any case, if net neutrality is allowed to die you can expect this to happen in every part of the web. Your attempt to get to Google is suddenly timed out or replaced by Verizon-oogle. I liken this whole situation to the electrical grid. This whole issue would be like the electric company telling you what you could or could not plug into your wall socket, or potentially what brand of appliance you could or couldn’t use. This must not be allowed to happen. Without me rambling on anymore I would just like you to investigate this more if I have peaked your interest. A good place to start is here:

http://www.savetheinternet.com/=faq

feel free to contact me with any questions you may have and I am happy to give you more information!

Cheers –

Knute (knute @ zcss.com)