Sherry Chandler » Net Neutrality at the NYTimes
Net Neutrality at the NYTimes
The issue of net neutrality has finally made the NYTimes op-ed page. In a article entitled, “Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End,” Adam Cohen points out that:
The World Wide Web is the most democratic mass medium there has ever been. Freedom of the press, as the saying goes, belongs only to those who own one. Radio and television are controlled by those rich enough to buy a broadcast license. But anyone with an Internet-connected computer can reach out to a potential audience of billions.
This democratic Web did not just happen. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, envisioned a platform on which everyone in the world could communicate on an equal basis. But his vision is being threatened by telecommunications and cable companies, and other Internet service providers, that want to impose a new system of fees that could create a hierarchy of Web sites. Major corporate sites would be able to pay the new fees, while little-guy sites could be shut out.
…But Sir Tim and other supporters of net neutrality are inspiring growing support from Internet users across the political spectrum who are demanding that Congress preserve the Web in its current form.
This issue turns out to be truly bipartisan. The way I see it, for-pay web access would wind up making the web as vapid and profit-driven as television, the big music industry, and the big publishing industry. In all of those, it’s the little independents who are doing the real creative work and the big guys who are raking in the profits.
If you want to learn more or take action, go to Save the Internet and/or to MoveOn.org.
Update: Also in the NYTimes this morning, an article on the Internet Movie Database. I’m not sure whether to admire this as a sort of rags-to-riches story or decry it as commercialization of what was once a free source of information for us all:
Mr. Needham, a boyish, closely-shorn 39-year-old walked to the kitchen, put on the kettle and made tea. Part of what makes him a curiosity — beyond his enviable work setup — is that Internet Movie Database, or Imdb for short, has become a classic example of a hobby that turns out to be a powerful media asset. For years, it has quietly gone about its business almost entirely separately from its parent, and only subtly does it encourage users to go to the Amazon site to buy videos.
“We didn’t sit down and think, ‘What’s the best way to make money on the Internet?’ ” Mr. Needham said. “This is very much a labor of love. When we started the company, there was no commercial use of the Internet.”
Even so, Imdb’s convergence moment may soon be at hand, say studio executives who have worked with Amazon on developing a download service that could let people burn DVD’s on their desktops. Though Amazon and Mr. Needham decline to talk about plans, Imdb could play a more prominent role in the retailer’s media strategy. Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers are all involved in the project, executives close to the project have said.
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