If you haven’t heard of net neutrality yet, it’s time to get familiar with it. According to Wikipedia, Net Neutrality is defined as, “a principle proposed for residential broadband networks and potentially for all networks. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as one where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.”
In other words, a free and open internet for everyone. We WANT net neutrality. We DONT want net neutrality regulation.
There are forces at play that wish to control and regulate the content on the internet. This would limit the free environment that allows for breathtaking innovation and competition that we’ve seen on the web. Just recently, Democratic Congressman Markey introduced HR 3458, “The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009″.
This bill has been introduced with the goal being to, “establish a national broadband policy, safeguard consumer rights, spur investment and innovation, and for related purposes.” (emphasis added)
The logic goes like this, “To keep the internet free and innovative, we need to place controls on it.” Riiight…
Hear what our friend, Shelly Roche has to say about it.
Markey’s campaign contributions on OpenSecrets
From Campaign For Liberty
From Tech Liberation: It’s no coincidence that the Internet, a sanctuary of governmental restraint, has spawned such unparalleled innovation. In the relentlessly fast-moving digital age, regulatory intervention is a recipe for entrenching the status-quo.
From Digital Society: The US leads the world in innovation on the Internet and all of its related technologies and continues to do so under the current regulatory regime. Yet in the absence of market failure or any materialization of dire predictions from Net Neutrality regulation advocates 3 years ago, why is now a good time to pass radical new changes to the regulatory landscape to enforce an experimental version of the Internet that has never been tried? Why destroy existing business models that have flourished on the Internet today in favor of hypothetical businesses that may never materialize?
NOW (National Organization for Women) supports HR 3458:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/25/national-organizatio-1.html