Flame wars

Yesterday I posted a link to a site dedicated net neutrality to my Facebook page. Most of the people that can see my Facebook page are family. I also added their link to my twitter feed. I got a very vindictive comment from one of my cousins. I doubt he reads this blog or that anyone does for that matter. However, I have chosen to respond here. The site is Free Press something or another which points to the site Save the internet dot com. Neither site is really very controversial. So perhaps my cousin was having a bad day or something. Or maybe he is upset with me about something else. Back in the olden days of the internet (nntp servers, list servers, and other pre-web proto calls) I would have gotten very upset and started a flame war with my own cousin. Today I understand that like a certain body part everyone has an opinion. Not everyone can express their opinions in clear and concise language.

A quick internet search will bring many thoughtful commentaries on the subject of Net Neutrality. This is not something new. The Internet from the beginning was neutral. It did not care what application was running on it. Even new protocols could and can run over computers that are across the country or the world from each other. The earliest RFC’s required network operators to route all traffic forward without interference or delay. Most people today get their internet from the few cable companies and telephone companies that still exist and those companies have competing technologies. Take VOIP for instance, there are independent companies like Vonage that provide internet based telephone service but they have to depend on an open Internet. There have been problems with ISPs throttling VOIP traffic from providers other than themselves. Today more and more people are turning off their televisions and using the Internet for news, entertainment, information, communication, and shopping. They are not using cable TV, the yellow pages, telephones, or other services which the ISPs make a good deal of money on.

This conflict of interest requires regulations. There are some bills in Congress that would do this and the FCC is looking into making some rules along this line. There is at least one bill that would keep the FCC from making any rules about the Internet. These bills change as they move through the congress and it is very tough to link to a bill that is changing all the time. A quick search will yield anyone with a couple of fingers links the bills. No one with a real job has the time to keep after these things. But we do need to let our representatives know we are paying attention. I am sure there are other organizations and web sites that are watching this. The EEF is one that I follow the IEEE has some interesting articles posted but you have to be a member to find them. Save the internet dot com is an interesting site that can provide lots of information about this subject.