Net Neutrality is Dead (But We Can Bring It Back...)
I told you yesterday that it was too early to celebrate.
If you've known me for longer than five minutes, you know I care a great deal about intellectual freedom and information access, and that includes Internet freedoms and access. Net neutrality is a huge deal for me.
So, first you need to know what net neutrality is. You can watch a video, if you like. I highly recommend it - it's very thorough in its explanation, and the graphics help visualize the concepts well. If you'd rather read about it, Common Cause has a great fact sheet; Greenlining Institute's 2012 booklet is longer, but excellent. There is also an infographic that gets to the heart of it all well, and provides links to more information.
Great, now you know what net neutrality is, and - if you're a) sane and b) not an ISP, you want to keep the Internet free. Well, that's not looking good right now. A federal appeals court has struck down key elements of the FCC's "open Internet" (net neutrality) rules, giving your ISP the power to charge for content and to block content it deems unacceptable. You can learn more about the ruling. And there's Michael Hiltzik's article in the Los Angeles Times, which is spectacular.You can also check out the American Library Association's reaction. (Hint: we like net neutrality. A lot. We are sort of in love with the ideal of people who need information getting that information.)
But it's not the end of the road, folks. We can still bring net neutrality back to life. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better than... Wait, that sounds familiar...
Let's try this again:
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| *Please tell me we don't have to wait for the zombie apocalypse... |
If you've known me for longer than five minutes, you know I care a great deal about intellectual freedom and information access, and that includes Internet freedoms and access. Net neutrality is a huge deal for me.
So, first you need to know what net neutrality is. You can watch a video, if you like. I highly recommend it - it's very thorough in its explanation, and the graphics help visualize the concepts well. If you'd rather read about it, Common Cause has a great fact sheet; Greenlining Institute's 2012 booklet is longer, but excellent. There is also an infographic that gets to the heart of it all well, and provides links to more information.
Great, now you know what net neutrality is, and - if you're a) sane and b) not an ISP, you want to keep the Internet free. Well, that's not looking good right now. A federal appeals court has struck down key elements of the FCC's "open Internet" (net neutrality) rules, giving your ISP the power to charge for content and to block content it deems unacceptable. You can learn more about the ruling. And there's Michael Hiltzik's article in the Los Angeles Times, which is spectacular.You can also check out the American Library Association's reaction. (Hint: we like net neutrality. A lot. We are sort of in love with the ideal of people who need information getting that information.)
But it's not the end of the road, folks. We can still bring net neutrality back to life. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better than... Wait, that sounds familiar...
Let's try this again:
 |
| Even more information from Wired! Just click the image. |
Links!
- It's Copyright Week! Learn more with these six principles. Together, we can make copyright work right.
- You can now search Google for images limited by license type - meaning you can limit your search to legally usable and/or modifiable images! Hooray!
- No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose: Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read.
- Texting during movie previews: Not nice. Throwing popcorn at someone you're arguing with: Tacky. Shooting a guy who threw popcorn at you in a movie theater: What the Foo? (That's a Swickyism I've adopted.) Why do you even have a gun in a movie theater? How is shooting this guy an appropriate response? Do you have a deadly allergy to popcorn or something? He killed one guy, and wounded the guy's wife - I guess we should be grateful he didn't kill a kid, too.
- The Murderer and the Manuscript: A stupid crime destroyed the lives of three people; one of the perpetrators found solace in the library, and has written an award winning novel.
- A restaurant with style, Victorian style: What do I know about fine dining? My idea of "fancy" is a Chinese buffet. (That is hyperbolic - I actually go to a few very nice restaurants occasionally. But, yeah, not that often.) But I do happen to watch a lot of Top Chef, so I do know who Rick Moonen is. And I really, really want to visit Rx Boiler Room. In costume, of course.
- Elimination by Illumination: This is just ridiculous, guys.
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