The following is a short paper I wrote on Internet Neutrality for an English composition class in 2006. It's not well written. However, it gets the point across. Nowadays, I have a slightly different viewpoint.
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Every day a majority of Americans access the Internet. Most of us use e-mail, instant messengers, and search engines multiple times a day. What if one day you logged on to the Internet and you could not connect to your instant messenger, check your e-mail, or do research using Google? Today we have no problem doing any of these things. We have complete access to any website and any service available on the World Wide Web. But the Internet is on the verge of being dominated by large telecommunication companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner.
Why would telecommunication companies want to do this? Money. Imagine, if you will, going to Google to look up something, but the page takes a long time to load, or in some cases wont even load at all. So you finally give up and decide to use Yahoo's search engine instead. Your Internet Service Provider has the power to degrade or entirely cut off your access to certain websites. Therefor influencing you to use what Internet services they want you to use. Internet companies such as Yahoo and Verizon will be signing contracts to degrade or cut off the services of their competitors to us unless the lawmakers in Washington, D.C. decide that net neutrality is important enough to put into law.
The Internet has always been a free and open place. A platform for innovation. Anyone who wishes to can publish their voice and opinions on the web, they can even start a business easily. All you need is access to a computer and a phone line. Once you're connected to the Internet you have full access to anything on the Internet. Soon this may not be the case.
You most likely access the Internet over lines owned by either a telephone or a cable company. These companies, through specialized computer software and hardware, have total access over what you can and cannot do over the Internet. They can also log what sites you visit, what mp3's or movies you pirate, and who you talk to on your instant messenger.
Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and others want to control every aspect of the Internet to its customers. They want to degrade your access to certain sites-most likely of their competitors-but yet “offer” you a premium account of a higher price so that you have equal access to every site on the Internet. And for those who cannot afford the extra charges will have to put up with an even more commercialized, corporate-controlled Internet.
Up until now Internet Service Providers have had to forward Internet traffic from the Internet to you untouched. They could not do anything to hinder the availability of web sites or services such as instant messaging or Internet telephone. In the fall of 2005, the FCC decided that cable and telephone companies did not fall under this law. The COPE act, also known as the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act, which was recently proposed, could hinder net neutrality and even free speech on the Internet.
As of now the Internet is operated under these three principals of net neutrality: non-discrimination, interconnection, and access. Non-discrimination means that your Internet Service Provider cannot hinder the individual pieces of information being sent to and fro your computer. Interconnection means that your Internet Service Provider must transfer information at the same speed, even if its to competitor services or companies. Access means that you have full access to anything on the Internet, that they cannot keep you from having access to any web site or other service on the Internet.
The issue of net neutrality has recently come to lawmakers attention in Washington, and is rapidly becoming a very hot topic. Lawmakers are taking sides and preparing for the next big battle to hit Washington. On one side we have the democrats, who support a free and open Internet. On the other side is the republicans who back the COPE act and believe telecommunication companies should be able to control the access you have to the Internet.
Democrats believe that net neutrality is a crucial part of the way the Internet operates. That, if these large telecommunication companies had their way, innovation on the Internet would be crushed. Innovation is what created the Internet, and what keeps it growing, and what has helped our economy grow over the last decade.
On the other hand republicans believe that these companies should be allowed to control what and how their customers view on the web. They feel they should be able to offer premium services at a higher price and a basic service for the rest of us. But if that happens, there's not much to stop them from degrading or blocking which services we use on the Internet.
The truth about the COPE act is that it's not just about viewing some websites faster than others, it's about upcoming technologies that use the Internet to distribute content to its customers. Such technologies include Internet phone services, video conferencing, and even some cable TV services are starting to take advantage of the Internet. Telecommunication companies could easily form the Internet into a place where in order to use one of any of these services you may have to pay extra to your Internet Service Provider in order to gain “premium” access for these services.
This future of the Internet is scary. If net neutrality is not put into law and the FCC does not put regulations for Internet Service Providers the Internet could turn into a slow, commercialized place where the big companies and their sponsors control how you use it, and innovation on the net will be practically ceased. Net neutrality is definitely a hot topic, some predict that this issue will not be resolved until sometime next year.
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