If you are like me, every time you see a blog post with Net Neutrality in the subject line, your eyes glaze over and you skip to the next message. This morning, the Skipper over at Barking Moonbat Early Warning System (our #1 favorite blog) has taken on the job of explaining it to people like us.
First, let me introduce the two “gals”. On one side we have Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay, Disney, Amazon, and Apple. This group is known as the CBUI (Coalition of Broadband Users and Innovators). On the other side we have the Bell telephone companies, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter and all the major access providers. I shall refer to them heretofore as the APG (Access Providers Group).
Second, let me explain in simple terms what the two “gals” really want.
- The CBUI group wants “net neutrality” as they call it. This is a term that is confusing to a lot of people so The Skipper will try to explain it for you. The term is used to describe a socialist approach to the internet - one for all and all for one. Everybody has equal access to everything. The internet should be non-discriminatory and everyone gets an equal slice of the bandwidth pie. All internet packets are equal and no one should have to pay more for a particular type of content. The CBUI wants to keep the internet “neutral” by (are you ready for this?) getting Congress to pass laws regulating and mandating this one size fits all approach.
- The Access Providers Group is crying “foul” and saying that we need a more capitalistic approach to the internet. They want to charge different prices for different content being pushed across the pipes - and they want Congress to mind its own business and stay out of the internet. They say they need to be able to charge more for things like streaming video, high-definition movies and other similar content from companies like ... you guessed it ... the CBUI group. The APG says they need to let the internet function as a free market so they can offer different pricing models and can thereby afford to upgrade their pipes. The charges would be mainly paid by the content providers in the CBUI, thus their resistance. ... More
Go on over and read the full article, especially his conclusions. Although I didn't come onboard until 1987, I too started with a 300 baud modem at Compuserve and with a computer that didn't even have a hard drive. I remember the day I upgraded to 1200 baud and thought, "it doesn't get any better than this!" Of course, it did, because within a year or so, I was upgrading again, this time to 2400 baud, then 5600, then my first cable modem and broadband and now wireless (an amazing thing this hi-speed wireless access). Back then our choices were Compuserve or Bulletin Boards and in 1991-2 I signed up for my very first Internet account using Chameleon and then a beta version of the first Netscape. I stuck with Compuserve until about 1994 and then moved exclusively to the Net and learned how to design web pages. Back then we didn't have Windows or even something called a "mouse." It was DOS and Unix commands and women were few and far between. Since I am 100% self-taught, I loved being one of the few women ... techy guys were very willing to help some dumb broad who didn't know a thing about electronics. My mentor was Dick Eastman, today of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, he was the founder of the Compuserve "Roots Forum," and sometimes the techs on the old Zenith forum. The Skipper is "old school" and I've always found him willing to give this dumb ol' broad a helping hand. I trust his judgment on this subject, even though I only know him electronically.
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