Linux Dealt a rest BLOW by Apple !!!!!!! 2455

Funny you should mention it... I just helped deliver a stack of pebreastion signatures to Senator Herb Kohl's office on this very issue. I was even talked into being the spokesperson for our group and gave a little speech on why this issue matters to us.

In short, Net Neutrality is a policy that has been in place since the earliest days of the Internet. It states that once a packet makes it onto the Internet, the telecoms must route them all the same and not give one preference over another based on origin or packet type. The telecoms don't like this because it does not let them fully leverage their size and local monopolies. What they want (and they've admitted this) is to extort money from the googles and the ebays of the world, making them pay extra to make sure their packets actually make it to their customers.

Keep in mind that google and ebay already pay for their Internet access just like anybody else, and they pay a huge pile more because they have much larger connections. What the telecoms want them to pay for is the final delivery of packets coming from google when they are delivered to YOUR desktop... something you already paid for.

Why should that matter to you? It provides a lever by which the telecoms can squeeze content providers out of the market in favor of their own services or those of their partners. It reduces your choice, reduces free speech... in short, it will make the Internet suck.

The issue gets stickier when you look at the telecoms' desires to control what types of traffic are allowed over the Internet. Like using that voice over IP software? To bad, your telecom came up with a proprietary competing protocol, so they are degrading the compebreastion to make their version more attractive. Can't seem to download files from the Internet? Perhaps your not using the DRM enabled protocol that your ISP prefers.

Imagine sending a letter to your grandma in Smallville only to get a phone call from the Smallville post office saying "We notice you are mailing from Middletown, so we won't deliver your letter unless you give us some extra money over and above the usual first clbutt postage." Or you learn that they are throwing away all the letters in envelopes made by a particular company (maybe because the postmaster owns a competing envelope company). Image each local post office could set these policies as arbitrarily as they like, with no uniformity.

It means independent business people like me will have an uphill battle becoming the next google or ebay, as the entrenched telecoms will stack the deck in favor of the established players that can afford their extortion racket. It means the independent sources of news and information (i.e. blogs) will be squeezed out. Its a move back to the days of big coporate content providers and pbuttive consumers, with little room for edgy or controversial content from citizen artists or political activists.

That is what the telecoms want for the future of the Internet. This is what the loss of Net Neutrality means.

Thad