Ive been a netizen long enough to remember when people who used the internet were called netizens. About 22 years if I remember correctly. Back then we called it The I-Way, we used Gofer to find information stored on university servers in Germany, England, Australia, France, The U.S… You knew where the information was coming from because the URLs had country tags at the end of the domain names. They were wild times in large ASCII text. Along came graphics, images, animations, then video. The technology online boomed, but so did commercial attempts to monopolise it. I posted about the battle for Net Neutrality years ago, and people didnt believe me. More recently petitions have gone around as people started to finally understand that freedom on the internet in the united states was really in danger. Here is a recent update: Written by Brian Austin Whitney Visit the Website: jpfolks Net Neutrality Alert: There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. -John Adams During this long Net Neutrality fight we have won some battles, but it appears the entire world is about to lose the war! -Brian Austin Whitney From our partners at the FMC: Late on Wednesday, news broke that despite the petition bearing over a million signatures* presented to the FCC in January, Chairman Tom Wheeler is now circulating draft rules that would allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to charge those offering content online a higher fee for priority delivery, establishing a two-tier Internet that could disadvantage smaller operators. Thats bad news for artists, indie labels, and other innovators, as Interim Executive Director Casey Rae explains: Make no mistake, these proposed rules are not ‘net neutrality.’ This is the moment when the regulatory agency with a mandate to promote competition and diversity did just the opposite. The Internet in America will now be carved into a fast lane for well-heeled corporations and a dirt road for everyone else. A free market based on competition and entrepreneurship depends on the ability for anyone to bring the next great product, idea or innovation to the marketplace. A society that respects its creators must not place access to culture in the hands of just few massive companies. These proposed rules not only don’t go far enough to safeguard consumers, they actively marginalize smaller and independent voices. Artists, developers, culture workers, media-makers, nonprofit organizations, community, civic and church groups must tell the FCC that this isnt good enough. We need real rules of the road for ISPs to guarantee that creative expression and entrepreneurship can thrive in the online ecosystem. FMC and our allies look forward to making this case in the upcoming rulemaking after May 15.” Mark your calendar with that date, because well have opportunities for you to take action—both online and offline—to tell the FCC to do the right thing. In the meantime, you can check out media coverage of the FMCs statement in SPIN, The Nation, and Colorlines. (*including many of you reading this-Brian) ------------------------------------------- Editorial From Brian: Folks, in my opinion this will forever turn the Internet into a vapid wasteland of the haves and have nots. It will be the Internet version of a gated community with soul crushing overlords on one side and all the rest of us on the outside looking in. I dont care what your political bent is, theres no rational reason any of you should support the loss of net neutrality nor any attempt to fool us into thinking were safe. In my view this will result in censorship by way of overwhelming financial hurdles to cross with the inevitable outcome being a complete loss of free and open EQUAL ACCESS speech. (And frankly, I am holding back on what I really fear here...) PLEASE read up on this topic. Well beyond just our music, our entire freedom in the Internet/Social Media age as we know it is about to come to an end. That is no exaggeration. I suggest visiting the Future of Music Coalition page, and get on their email list to get updates on this stuff. Visit them at FutureofMusic.org Get involved or blame yourself when it all goes down. But thats just my opinion, I could be right. ***************************************************
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 02:29:21 +0000
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