Net Neutrality: a serious problem

Alright, a big problem I have with most of the people where I live, is that they do not understand the whole debate of Net Neutrality. Therefore, I have decided to explain what it is to the lay person. I will warn you know, it will not be unbiased.



What is Net Neutrality?
Network Neutrality (Net Neutrality for short) is the whole concept of a free internet. What I mean by this is that, when you access the internet, you can access any website that you want with the fastest speed available no matter if it is made by a giant business or just an average Joe, the ISPs can not discriminate.

Why is this important to you?
Whenever you Stumble or Digg or even just surf the web, you will find that the most amusing sites are the small ones. Websites made by the common day people. Without Net Neutrality, accessing these sites would become so unbearable that most, if not all, web traffic will cease to exist to these sites. Without the visitors, webmasters will have no reason to keep their sites running. Social sites such as Digg, Stumble, or Redditt, will have no more material to report and therefore they will be no more.

You're just being melodramatic.
Not at all, these things are happening as we speak. Companies such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner want to control the flow of information on the web so they could profit even more. Here is a picture of a potential pricing situation in the near future:





There is much more to Net Neutrality, and I have only given the gist of what this huge problem is. Here are sites and videos which I feel you must see to understand this truly horrible threat to our own internet freedoms:

1)



2) Here is a more fulfilling explanation as to what Net Neutrality is. Save the Internet.com is an excellent site, there are ways to become active and Save the Internet has supplied the means.

3) Also, Barack Obama has laid out his tentative plan for protecting with Net Neutrality. You can read a short analysis on the Save the Internet Blog.

This video is a segment from a speech Obama gave a little over a year ago (I believe it was in Google Headquarters):