For someone who uses the internet everyday, I am embarrassed to admit I hadn't heard of Network Neutrality until this post.  Then, I saw a program on it this evening (Moyers on America:  The Internet Divide - http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/index.html).

I'm still working out my thoughts on it.  I'm not big on regulation but I'm also not confident in leaving the internet to the telecoms.  If the telecoms had built the infrastructure they promised to maybe this would not be the issue it is...at least not until later in the future.  I have to do more reading from different perspectives before I can come to a conclusion.  I actually believe in the possibility that some things should be regulated by the government but I just don't know yet if this is one of them.

I would really like to see some additional comments on this.  I think it is an important issue.

So let me get this strait....

Fake money buying fake things in a video game and some think it should be taxed?  OK?

I guess if you had to pay the tax in fake money then what would the IRS gain?

Oh right, more power, increased control over our lives, more employees, etc.

Someone's riding the train to crazy town again!

Okay, since it seems this discussion is not really going anywhere, in a nutshell, Network Neutrality is basically the cable and phone companies (e.g. owners of most of the routing infrastructure in the internet) want to be able to have the legal right to limit access to the internet to those who will pay a premium for it.  As I understand it, the implications are pretty much three fold:

1. Unless you want to pay higher fees for your website, you as a small business or non-profit or individual, may not be able to have your website accessible to the "higher tiers" of internet users.  It creates real barriers to entry for new entrants and for small entities (like Mom and Pop's) that don't have the monetary resources of a Fortune 500 or even a traditional brick and mortar "Small" (in legal sense) business.


2. As a surfer of the net, it means you will:




1. be limited in your choices by the various provider you go through because they will be filtering search results to be the things they want you to patronize (their clients on the other end);


2. end up paying more for your services or products purchased through the internet as these expenses on business start getting passed on to the consumer;


3. Essentially the internet in the US and it's backbone becomes nothing more than a group of subscription based "gateway" services like AOL.

There would be no governance set up to keep the cable and phone providers from charging ridiculously, because this is not a public utility in the traditional sense.  It would be market forces, and they are a consortium that has monopoly power in the market, and typically have limited competition in local markets (and as the continue to merge and consolidate, this becomes an ever greater concern).

This is a clear instance of where the government needs to step in instead of taking a laizees faire (sic?) approach.  It isn't about the government creating a bureaucracy and heaps of regulations, it is about the government passing laws that prevent the control of content being limited by telecommunications companies.  You don't need a bureaucracy in place to put the law in place to stop it and ensure network neutrality.  But if the move towards removing network neutrality isn't stopped, then there will need to be a bureaucracy established to regulate and watchdog the telecommunications companies to ensure there is no monopolistic extortion activities against consumers is going on.  Clearly, failure by the federal government to act in a manner that legally ensures for consumers and binds compliance to network neutrality upon the telecommunications firms is the same thing as the paradigm of "for evil to succeed, it needs nothing more than for good men and women to do nothing."

If a law establishing network neutrality is not passed, do you think that the owners of the routers and content manager hardware and the like is going to allow such things like general conference or the church's website to have free access to all the world?  A lot of TV stations stopped carrying "public service" announcements due to similar lack of oversight.  They were no longer required to do so.  The internet does not need to follow that same path of corporate greed.

Note:  This concept of content control is NOT the same thing as controlling / preventing the promulgation of filth and porn via the internet.  It is purely a means by which preferential treatment will be given to the content of whomever is willing to pay the price.  So, as long as the content is not illegal, if a purveyor of filth is willing pay the money, they will get preferential treatment in visibility to users of the internet whereas Mom and Pop cottage industry maker of embroidered temple packets is not even going to be able to reach its targeted market because they can't afford to pay the fee.

Fiber optic is available and in use in telecommunications... just not for you and I.  It is used widely in firms that can afford to pay for the infrastructure.  Not everything is copper wiring anymore in internal data or voice networks, if a company can afford it.  But, I agree with you TitusTodd about any ethical footing telecommunications companies may have once had has evaporated in the light of the not so subtle move to rebuild Ma Bell, squelch competition, and raise prices to consumers while not providing anything substantial in return as far as improved infrastructure or technology.  Innovation is only used if it will turn a quick profit.

Jeffery_LQ1W wrote:

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It will probably increase the level of pornography relative to other genres simply because pornography makes more money, and less "profitable" ventures will be dropped while the more profitable ventures will be increased.  Pornography is the biggest single money maker on the internet.

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Speaking of that filth, anyone been watching Glenn Beck's series on the smut.  I was really shocked about how crazy it has gotten on the web.  I guess I have been lucky and not run into it too much.  I never realized that the industry has exploded that much and that people (and teens) are making their own filth and puting it online.  Scary stuff.