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Save Internet Freedom
Are you an entrepreneur, or a start-up, with an Internet presence? Are you developing an innovative online business? Are you someone who uses email, uploads photos to share, makes purchases online, uses a search engine, or makes VoIP calls? If so, you need to act now to save Internet freedom and equality.
What is Net Neutrality?
You may not have heard of "Net Neutrality," but supporting this concept is critical to preserving the Internet's free and open access. Net Neutrality is the first amendment of the Internet, and it maintains three tenets: non-discrimination, interconnection, and access. Together, these tenets state that all users can access all (legal) content with any device, and all content providers can serve up that content without any form of favoritism, discrimination, or interference from the network. In other words, the network only exists to move data back and forth.
Who is Against Internet Freedom?
Phone and cable companies are attacking Net Neutrality with everything they're worth, and they're making headway. The target of heavy-duty lobbying funded by millions of influence-seeking dollars, Congress has already shot down an amendment to reinforce Net Neutrality. Companies such as AT&T and Verizon want to turn themselves into Internet gatekeepers and toll collectors by creating a tiered system Internet access. Their CEOs have stated as much.
What are the Threats?
How would this tiered system of access, consisting of fast and slow lanes, work? Let's say you are paying $50 a month for a DSL line, which provides full and speedy access to anything online: email, any website, any online services. The content providers are paying their ISPs for their Internet connection—the more traffic, the more they pay. Instead of this open and unfettered Internet, the telecom companies want content providers to pay an additional fee to provide you with content you request from the content providers. But both of you are already paying a fee to move that content over the network. On top of this, the telecom companies would have you pay a surcharge to access content from the "fast lane"—content you get for one price now. And they would decide who gets the fast lane and who doesn't. Or who is, or maybe isn't at all, accessible. Much like cable TV, they would decide which "channels" you are permitted to view. The telecom companies would become your content gatekeepers. And don't think censorship and abuse won't happen—it already has.
How Would Small Businesses be Affected?
If control of the Internet is handed over to the telecom corporations, small businesses, start-ups, and web innovators won't stand a chance. They won't have the money to "pay-to-play" in the telecom giants' new world order. Without greasing the wheels of commerce to get in the fast lane, these smaller players will never be able to develop the traffic they need to get out of the dust.
What are the Myths?
This is not a partisan issue. There are supporters for Net Neutrality from all sides, even those normally on opposite ends: Vinton Cerf ("father of the Internet"), Google, eBay, Gun Owners of America, MoveOn.org, Microsoft, Craigslist, the American Library Association, Afro-Netizen.com, the Consumer Federation of America, the Consumers Union, and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, as well as editorial boards at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and the Christian Science Monitor.
It's not about price controls. The basic tenet sets guidelines for competitive pricing, but fair and equal access for all. And it's not about new government regulations for the Internet, but about maintaining and keeping it an open, level playing field.
What is Happening Now?
The United Kingdom, South Korea, and Japan already have enacted laws to support Net Neutrality. The European Union is in the process of reviewing regulations to maintain access freedom. Meanwhile, our Congress has failed us by shooting down the Net Neutrality amendment and being heavily swayed and influenced by telecom money (with Congressmen Barton and Rush leading the charge). Do huge corporations lobby so hard and spend so much money to protect your interests, or theirs? We all know the answer to that.
What Can You Do to Help Save the Internet?
Go to SavetheInternet.com and do the following (from their website):
Keeping the Internet free may even save your life in a disaster.
About Cool Plum Design
Cool Plum Design is a full-service web design business. We work with clients throughout the United States who need to represent their business online. We offer quality, customer-focused solutions integrating design, functionality, and content.
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