my info speech

I want to introduce you on an issue that perhaps not many of you heard about. Everyone, I am sure, knows what the Internet is. I am sure that many of you can’t imagine the world with out it. We use it to shop, to stay in touch with friends and family, to entertain ourselves with, and to research speeches. But the Internet as we know it, is in danger of disappearing. Today I am going to tell you about the concept of net neutrality and how the Internet fits into our lives. I am also going to tell you how the telecommunication companies are planning to restrict your access to the Internet with “Internet 2” I hope by the end you will understand why it is important that this issue gets more attention.
The issue surrounding net neutrality affects your connection and what you can do with it. The way the Internet works today, is that everyone gets equal access to the Internet, doesn’t matter if you are amazone.com or lonleygirl82; if you are the president of the United States, or if you are a dog on a skateboard. You are just limited by the amount of bandwidth you license. When you pay your monthly Internet fees, you are actually licensing the use of the ISP resources. You pay them, and they provide you with a connection to the Internet. Which you can use to email, watch you tube, sell on eBay, post pictures, and write a blog. The ISP are not allowed to interfere with the contend that travels through the Internet. They cannot slow or diminish the connection to any particular site, or censor any material that you transmit. Regardless if the Content agrees with the ISPs views.
The Internet gave the first amendment a new lease on life. Everybody can express himself or herself on whatever issue they fell passionate about. Everyone can choose with whom ever he or she wants to deal with online. They can use one service from one ISP and another service from another. The ISP cannot favor one service over another.
But this is exactly what ISPs want to control with their new network called “Internet 2”. Control the Contend that the user sees. “Internet 2” is a high-speed connection exclusively for themselves and their partners. If you are a contend provider you have to pay enormous amounts of fees to host on “Internet 2”, because the ISP owner would rather that the user view their or their partners contend. If you are a contend provider, in addition to the fees, your content will have to meet strict guidelines that reflect the views of the ISP, or risk being shut down. If a blogger, for example, wants to comment on an article from CNN, that blogger would have to pay royalties to CNN in order to reference it, or CNN can deny the reference all together.
If the ISPs where to get their way, then that would seal the coffin of free speech on the internet. Nearly all bloggers and alternative media outlets will not be able to afforded the fees of “Internet 2”, not to mention be willing to conform to the ISPs views. And they will be forced to stay on the old “slow lane” of the Internet.
Everyday Internet user will also feel the Effects of this movement. Lets say your ISP is Yahoo, but you want to sell your beanie babies on eBay, but Yahoo has its own auction site. Yahoo will restrict your access to the network that contains eBay, unless you pay an additional access fee to reach that part of the Internet. In other words, without Net-Neutrality the ISP has the power to restrict your access to competing services.
The old Internet will eventually go away all together because people will get tired of all the extra fees of using it, or the deliberate poor service users are getting while trying to access outside services, and therefore killing free speech online
Some may say that this is part of free enterprise and ISP want to create their own network, then so be it…the problem with that argument is that the Internet is public and should remain so, the internet is not owned by a company, or a person, or for that matter, a state. If ISPs get full control of the contend that can be posted on the Internet, it would be as if a corporation would start charging people to walk through a city park. ISP did not create the content, that is on the internet today, millions of users around the world created it. The Issue basicly boils down to this, Users currently pay for your connection, and Contend providers currently pay for hosting. ISPs now want to control of the “in-between stuff”. The way that a users access the contend.
I really only had a chance to scratch the surface on this issue. There are so many more issues surrounding net neutrality. ISPs do not want to draw your attention to this because it can be stopped. The issue of net neutrality is on the ballot for 2008. Tell congressmen to vote yes on net neutrality. Tell all your friends and family about this issue. Sign a petion on “savetheinternet.com” or just google net neutrality to get a better picture of the issue. The Internet has become a near staple of all of our lives. We all love it, so why change it. Net neutrality is one of the only things that are still fair in our lives. Why not keep it that way. Go home, log on and google net neutrality, while you still can.