Assignment 4: Thoughts on Network Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the idea that governments and Internet service providers should treat everything on the internet equally. Some people support this concept but others are opposed to it. Why is that? Well there are pros and cons to net neutrality. It is good for the consumers because lets say if At&t for example blocked google because they are with Yahoo, then that would not be fair to the users. If net neutrality was not in place, something like that could happen. However, for the internet service providers it is a bad thing. They want to charge users what they want and are always about making the money. One of the pros are that net neutrality provides non discriminatory access, which is a good thing for users because it basically means that everyone using the internet is treat the same. Another pro of net neutrality is that innovation and creation are the heart of it. This is a big plus for users. It allows people to come up with creations and ideas that can be shared and heard. Lastly, net neutrality provides a competitive marketplace. It allows us to choose between different internet service providers rather than be told which one we have to have. However, there are a few cons of net neutrality. Basically the main point that people do not like is that internet service providers believe that they should be charging more money for more access to the internet. They believe that the heaviest users of the internet should be paying more. ISPs are not a fan of network neutrality. Some people also believe that we do not need more network neutrality legislation, that it will only do more harm. There are good and bad aspects of net neutrality and some people are for it and others are against it. Mainly it is the consumers that are for it and the ISPs that are against it. 

Recently, the FCC tried to enforce new rules against Net Neutrality. However, a federal appeals court ruled that they do not have the right to enforce those rules. What the FCC was trying to do was make it so that we have to pay for sites like youtube in order to get them at a fast pace. If we wanted to stream a youtube video at full speed we would have to pay a fee. Also if we wanted to download music from the internet it would become much more slower than bigger sites like Itunes and Amazon. The FCC appealed the ruling. Internet service providers have been pushing for this because they want to be able to control their usage and who gets what amount. 

Network Neutrality is fundamental to free speech. The internet is an open marketplace. If a person has an idea then he/she can share it with anyone or if you have an idea you can start a blog about it. If you want to sell a product on the internet, then you can. It basically allows us to do and say what we want on the Internet. 

Hearing the recent news about net neutrality was very educational to me. I have never read anything about it before but it is interesting to learn about. The recent news would affect me because if they end up charging you for sites like Youtube, I will not be paying for it and it will limit my use of the internet. I use the internet so much so if these new rules would actually go into place, I would be affected by it negatively. 

I think that net neutrality is a good thing. I believe that everything should be equal on the internet. We should absolutely not have to pay to use sites or use them faster. The internet service providers should not be able to charge customers more depending on how much they use it. It is not fair for the different financial status of the users. It will not be a problem for rich people but for less fortunate and middle class it will be. I do not think it should even be a question to change the rules. The ISPs just want to make more money but it is not fair to us. Also I do not think that sites need to be monitored. If you do not want to look at a site then do not. It is that simple. I think net neutrality is great and that we should able to express ourselves and have equal opportunities. 

I found two sites that talked about recent news on network neutrality. The first one was: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/05/net-neutrality-recast/5877835/. And the second was: http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/27/technology/open-internet/. I know that both of these sites are valid because one is USA Today and the other is CNN. These are both news sites. They also both talked about recent news.