Tried to Get Net Neutrality, Comcast said No, No, No.

Net Neutrality is a legislative proposal to keep the internet open and free from corporate greed. Opposition for net neutrality comes from fiscally conservative think tanks (Americans for Tax Reform and The Cato Institute) which suggest net neutrality may violate first amendment rights. The argument is that the First Amendment prohibits government from forcing owners of communication infrastructure to transmit information against their will. Large hardware companies, cable and other telecommunication companies (Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner,AT&T) are also opposed to net neutrality. Between 2006 and 2008 these mega corporations- along with Koch led Americans For Prosperity- lobbied $218 million to Representatives and gave $23.7 million in campaign contributions to oppose net neutrality.

Proponents of net neutrality are consumer advocates, online companies and some technology companies. (Yahoo!, Vonage, EBay, Amazon, Microsoft) Proponents want a legal mandate ensuring that cable companies allow ISPs free access to their cable lines. (common carriage agreement). They want to ensure cable companies can’t screen, interrupt or filter internet content without a court order. Cable companies can decide which websites will go fast,slow or which won’t load at all.

I believe that net neutrality is pro-consumer. While we don’t need the government totally controlling the internet, we do need regulations. Industries have shown time and time again that they can not regulate themselves. (industries that come to mind immediately are banking, housing, and oil). Greed becomes an over powering motivator to cut corners and oppress competition. Comcast is a perfect example of why we need net neutrality. In October 2007, Comcast was found to be blocking or severely delaying BitTorrent uploads on their network using a technique which involved creating “reset” packets that appeared to come from the other party. In August 2008, the FCC found that Comcast broke the law when it throttled the bandwidth available to certain customers for video files in order to make sure that other customers had adequate bandwidth.

There has been a lot of attempts to pass legislation concerning net neutrality. Most of it gets shot down, and the little that does get passed through gets tossed out by another piece of legislation. A federal appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers. I say let’s put laws into place that allows the FCC to regulate the internet. I mean, after all, you don’t want the internet to start operating the way television currently does- do you? (subscribe to “packages” that will allow you to visit certain websites, and prohibiting you from visiting others).

If the internet doesn’t remain neutral and companies are allowed to filter, restrict and redirect the content on the internet, it will surely stifle future innovations. Where do you think Vonage would be now if Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner and other big name internet providers could interrupt Vonage’s service? (much like they did to BitTorrent).