What seems to be the problem?
The Internet as we know it, is in trouble. Some big cable companies in USA are looking to charge websites for using their bandwidth to provide content. The explanation given by these companies is that a lot of websites that serve popular web content, take up too much of the bandwidth of the ISP. These ISPs are not only looking to charge video and gaming websites, but also lightweight websites like Google.com. They’ve even setup a lobby against Net Neutrality, which simply put, means equal access and opportunity for all, on internet.
Here’s a short video for more info :
What does this mean?
This will effectively promote the big business owners and will crush the ‘little guy’. This in turn, will effectively lead to control of information over the internet and lack of competition for the big business owners. It can also lead to the death of free speech as small blog owners, the backbone of free speech on the internet, will probably end up with sites that load very slowly or not at all.
Is the the threat real?
Statements made by CEOs and owners of ISPs confirm that the intend to charge websites to have their content load faster than others. The main issue cited has been to cost of developing the infrastructure to support the delivery of content to end users.
William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.
This is ridiculous!
And we couldn’t agree more. The ISPs already charge end users for providing infrastructure and internet access! Without websites to serve content, the ISPs won’t have any end users to charge, in fact, the better the internet becomes, the more the ISPs profit. Now the ISPs won’t charge the end users more money, because they have to survive in a competitive environment, so they charge the ones who are making money on the internet. Does this sound like “I want a share of the pie too”?
How does this affect me?
If you are reading this, chances are that you are a webmaster. You want more people to visit your site so you can spread your website’s information or make money from your website. Chances are, you also have competition, who’s trying to do the same thing. If they get access to the ‘fast lane’ by paying big money to the ISPs and you can’t, their website will get more visitors because your website will load ‘oh-so-slow’. Losing visitors means losing website earnings.
How can I help?
You can do you part by visiting savetheinternet.com and signing an online petition. If you represent a large group of people, you can also get listed as a supporting organization. As webmasters, you can also find ready-made code to help you link to their website and provide them better pagerank. You can also choose to display one of their banners on your website through a hotlinked image.
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Is this really true?
This is pretty unfair!