Most of you have heard the term “Net Neutrality”, but from what we can see, not many of your care. But you should. If the big Internet providers get there way, what you see, hear, and read on the Internet will be forever changed. Those who can afford to pay to use the Internet “Fast Lanes” will have their content easily and quickly accessible — while small companies, like ours, who cannot afford to pay for “Fast lanes” sites will become terribly slow and difficult to use and frustrating to view. Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T and the other Internet Goliaths will deny that of course, because they want to see Internet Neutrality ended so they have the advantage – it really is Capitalism at work – the survival of the richest.<\/p>\n
I understand that Net Neutrality seems like an arcane subject and difficult to understand, since all sites and all data has equal access to the fastest lanes right now. But if that ever changes, and if the big Internet companies get their way, it will — you’ll find out what Net Neutrality is the hard way.<\/p>\n
I found this article this morning that not only explains is plain English what Net Neutrality is, but also explains the consequences of ending Net Neutrality. I hope you will take 3 or 4 minutes to read it in its entirety.<\/p>\n
\nDisruptions: Paying to Travel in the Internet\u2019s Fast Lanes<\/h2>\n
Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which might appeal a ruling that limits how it regulates broadband providers.Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York Times Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which might appeal a ruling that limits how it regulates broadband providers.
\nFor a subject that sounds mind-numbingly dull, \u201cnetwork neutrality\u201d is the most important issue facing the Internet since, well, the Internet.<\/p>\nThe idea behind net neutrality is that the web material we see on our laptops and smartphones, whether from Google or a tiny little blog, should flow freely through the pipes of the Internet, regardless of origin, destination or content. No one gets special treatment.<\/p>\n
But what if someone is willing to pay for her data to go faster? This is capitalism. Can\u2019t the people who own the pipes charge more?<\/p>\n
The issue has come to the fore now that a federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission can no longer stand in the way of AT&T, Verizon and other Internet service providers that might want to create Internet express lanes.<\/p>\n
Count on it: This battle isn\u2019t over yet. On Friday, President Obama said the F.C.C. was considering an appeal with the goal of maintaining \u201ca free and open Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The premise behind net neutrality goes back to the days of the telegraph. Even then, everything moved at pretty much the same speed. Since the 1970s, the F.C.C. has prevented telecommunications companies from playing favorites on long-distance telephone lines. And it\u2019s not as if your electric company charges you one rate for the electricity to power your refrigerator and another for the electricity to use a washing machine \u2014 or offer special, high-price options to those who want power during shutdowns…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
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Most of you have heard the term “Net Neutrality”, but from what we can see, not many of your care. But you should. If the big Internet providers get there way, what you see, hear, and read on the Internet will be forever changed. Those who can afford to pay to use the Internet “Fast Lanes” will have\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1426],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6944,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6943\/revisions\/6944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}