"TheirSpace" - an excellent article on Net Neutrality

[swag]

TheirSpace

John D. Rockefeller realized 135 years ago that the way to control the oil market was to control the transport of oil. So in 1871, he colluded with the railroad industry to form a cartel called the South Improvement Company.

Under their plan, the rate to ship oil would double, and Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company would get rebates for every gallon of oil shipped, even those shipped by its competitors. South would also collect information on the destinations, costs and dates of competitors' oil shipments.

Once word leaked, independent oil producers revolted and managed to stop South before it shipped a single gallon. But to a great extent, the damage had been done. Rockefeller offered to buy out his competitors, showing them his books so they'd know what they were up against. They had a choice: Sell out now, or be run into the ground. Standard Oil went on to control the production of oil throughout the United States until the Supreme Court broke it up in 1911.

What does a 19th-century oil monopolist have to do with the modern-day Internet world of ones and zeroes? Well, we all know how nicely things work out when oil men are in charge.
. . .

Now, as Congress votes on its first major telecommunications bills since 1996, telecom and cable companies are seeking preferred status for Internet content providers willing to pay for fast downloads, with slower service for everyone else—an Information Super-Tollway, if you will.

. . . more

[otohara]

1. Looks Interesting

thanks for posting

[Uncle Joe]

2. Thanks for posting swag,

kicked and recommended



:kick:

[swag]

3. You're welcome, unc. I thought the article spelled things out so plainly.

There has been too much confusion on the issue.

See you around the neighborhood.

[klook]

4. Extremely well written article

Comprehensive and easy to follow. Thanks.

[PghTiny]

5. Good article

Now if only my congressbitch (Jo Ann S. Davis - Rapturist from VA 1) would quit sucking corporate cock long enough to read in.

[swag]

6. Highlighting a sidebar (loss of net neutrality kills entrepreneurship)

http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3238/7815#NetLosses

. . .

Will the loss of net neutrality be the Silicon Forest's spotted owl, the catalyst that brings down an industry?

Bart Massey, associate professor for computer science at Portland State University, certainly believes it would.

Massey is an active participant in Portland's vibrant open-source community, the breeding ground for software innovation that's partially responsible for the city's reputation as a hotbed of the creative class. He says that community would be "massively" affected since its members rely heavily on the free movement of large data packets as they exchange ideas.

These innovators aren't nerds uselessly obsessing over ones and zeros; among them are the creators of the next Google or Linux software—tomorrow's powerhouses of the high-tech economy. The loss of net neutrality "cuts down massively on the ability of these entrepreneurs to present a business plan anyone would fund," says Massey.

Massey says U.S. open-source developers already "feel like the stepchildren of the world, because this whole question sounds silly in other countries." He lists electronics exporter South Korea as one of the countries where "the government builds up the network, so that every stinkin' home can have access to bandwidth."

. . .

[swag]

7. A kick before dying

because I like net neutrality.