Net Neutrality Part 2 Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech

The for the last 15 years the FCC has been hit with heavy criticism about it's dealing with censorship because many felt that was not what the FCC was created for.  But the FCC has a chance to redeem its public image by starting to enforce net neutrality by witch is absolutely one reason the FCC was really started for,  control media pipelines in favor of the public good.

So the FCC is now trying to pass a bill that will help support net neutrality.  Some of the main points in this bill is that internet providers can't favor their own content and providers can't limit access to lawful content.

Right now it seems all this net neutrality is all about if just watching Netflix and downloading everything off the internet.  But really it has a greater implications.  If we do not keep the internet an open network then we run the risk of losing the ability of have a free press and could infringe on first amendment rights.   This is exactly what China does. When you go on the internet in China you are not on the same internet that the rest of the world gets.  You are on a Chinese internet that is tightly controlled and cannot get access with sites that the government does not agree with wether it be politically or financially.

Right now all the cable companies are trying to do is slow down Skype, Netflix, iTunes and other internet media.  But if those same ISPs decide that they do not want to support the New York Times or CNN in favor of there own companies it would be a violation of the first amendment.  It would be as if the phone companies charged you double to call people they did not like.

So even if you do not fully understand what net neutrality is, just remember it comes down to protecting free speech and free press.

Wiki Leaks - Freedom of Speach?

By now most of heard about Wiki Leaks and its creator Julian Assange.  Wiki Leaks  is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks.  In past months Wiki Leaks have leak thousands of US military files that were stollen by a low ranking solider.

Now here is the part that is starting to dive me crazy.  The question on everyone mind is "Is what he did illegal? Should Julian Assange be held accountable and prosecuted?"  To me this very question is ridiculous.  He is an Australian citizen that runs a web site based out of Sweden.  It doesn't matter what he does he does not fall under US jurisdiction.  We cannot even extradite Roman Polanski as he hosts film festivals in his villa in France, and he was convicted on US soil.  The news channels know this but they still constantly talked about it because it makes great news.  The guy that actually stole the stuff was arrested immediately and sitting in a military jail.  They are going to throw the book at him and you know they are not letting him talk to anyone so there is no story there.

Wiki Leaks is protected under the first amendment just like anyone else.  Any newspaper or news network that got the scoop first would have reported the story.  If CNN or the New York Times got the scoop first would the anger about the leak have taken the same direction?  And all the major news networks report it anyway.  One reason for the out lash at Wiki Leaks from the major new networks is because such a small organization got the information first.  In in a kind of act of jealousy the major news networks bash the little guy.  A good example of this same thing happening in the media else were is a certain male celebrity went on Howard Stern recently and told some truths about himself and the next day he was criticized for giving the story to Stern and not to some one like Oprah.

The government got off easy on this one.  The story became not what facts were leaked but got turned around and Wiki Leaks became the story.  Who even remembers what was leaked? Something about Gaddafi getting plastic surgery and the Saudi's bitching about Iran, what a revelation.   This is a good example agenda setting and of how the mass media does not necessarily tell us what to think but what to think about.  It is a shame that the media does support Wiki Leaks more because in the long run what ever legal decisions come of this is going to effect the freedom of speech or everyone.

Net Neutrality Part 1

A topic i want to research a bit further this semester is Net Neutrality.

So what exactly is net neutrality? To get started i want to try to explane some of the Conflicts that are the key issues.

The Conflict:

     The way the internet works now and has since the beginning is that all content is treated the same whether you are on google, Hulu or Netflix.  The internet service provider and phone companies own the physical network which we pay to access the internet but they are not allowed to control access to any legal content on the web.

     What this really come down to is money.  We pay the cable and phone companies, in our case Time Warner cable, for access to the internet.  Keeping with the technology boom the online streaming of high definition entertainment is on the rise any will only get bigger.  Sites like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and other media streaming sites account for almost 30 percent of internet traffic.  Cable companies make a lot of money selling pay cable services like hbo, shotime, and pay per view and on demand services.  but with more people going to the internet for these services they are loosing money.  

      So what some of the large corporation are proposing is that they can control the bandwidth and the speed of the internet in favor of their own content.  The cable companies do not want you watching netflix so they will either limit the bandwith or force  companies to pay them more money to get full bandwith.

     With many new wireless channels opening up for the wireless phone networks net neutrality maintains that the rules that apply landline internet should apply to wireless networks.  Many people might not be aware of what this issue actually means.  We all take for granted the we can plug any telephone into the network and it will work and that any brand of television can plug in to your cable.  The ethernet internet network can plug into any brand of computer.  

     You would think it is ridiculous that if you buy an Apple computer that it can only work on a Time Warner Road Runner internet.  But that is that way the cell phone networks are becoming.  Cellphone are now basically small computers and we access the internet on our cellphones for the same reasons and we do on a laptop. With websites like Skype and Google voice you can now call anyone in the world over your phone and not have to pay AT&T for the call.  This is exactly what they do not want you to do. 

     So what  net neutrality means is that we need to treat the internet like a utility.  Just as we treat electricity, water and telephone.  Just as the electric company cannot tell you what brand of electronics can be plugged in to the wall or the water company tell you what brand of faucets to buy.

In the next part  it will get into more detail about who this effects and how it will impact the future of mass media.

Here are some great links that can bring you up to date with Net Neutrality

http://www.savetheinternet.com/frequently-asked-questions

http://www.hawaiipoliticalinfo.org/node/3403