Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Joker
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Fight For Your Right
Sunday, April 25, 2010
99 Problems
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Born in the USA
Saturday, April 17, 2010
My Generation
The internet. That vast cyber space where any and all information is stored and easily accessed at the click of a mouse. Where anyone can publish and share data, links, and ideas freely and equally with anyone else on the planet. Until now.
The decision earlier this month by a Washington D.C. appellate court ruled that Comcast has the right to regulate types of internet traffic that use more bandwidth. By giving internet service providers (ISPs) the ability to limit access to certain types of traffic, the court decision jeopardizes the future of "net-neutrality" and will disproportionately affect the millennial generation, who utilize high-bandwidth services the most.
In 2007, the Associated Press determined through a series of nationwide tests that Comcast had been intentionally slowing the internet service of clients who used file sharing networks, particularly BitTorrent traffic. BitTorrents are used for sharing large data files directly between two internet users, without being stored on a central server. So-called "peer-to-peer" networks use a high volume of bandwidth and while it is associated with illegally sharing music, movies and software, peer-to-peer sharing can and is being used for increasingly legal purposes of data exchange.
However, because peer-to-peer traffic accounts for a majority of internet traffic, Comcast limited the connectivity of subscribers using such services. After the FCC sought to prohibit this practice in the name of net-neutrality, the principle that all internet access should be free and equal, a legal battle ensued. The District of Columbia United States Court of Appeals ruled that such conduct fell outside the jurisdiction of the FCC and that Comcast reserves the right to interfere with any of its clients’ web traffic.
The implications of this ruling are two-fold.
First, it is unclear what doors this decision will open for further discrimination by ISPs. Net-neutrality is a vague concept and the lines and boundaries of the internet are nebulous. If ISPs have the capacity to limit peer-to-peer sharing, what’s to say they can’t limit other types of high-bandwidth traffic like streaming video from YouTube or ESPN, or videochat programs like Skype? Internet subscribers using these types of traffic could be subject to slower service or higher fees in the future.
Second, the decision will have a disproportionate effect on the so-called millennial generation who helped develop and who use the majority of this traffic. While the internet has become universal in its usage, the high-bandwidth functions are used predominantly by high school and college aged consumers. As a result, it is this demographic who will be most adversely affected by slower service or higher fees. Whether it is from music sharing, watching streaming videos or video chatting with friends across the country, high internet traffic use has become the norm of this generation.
And while one teenager streaming video may not affect a typical family’s broadband account, an apartment of four college students sharing one internet account is the most likely to be subjected to ISP discrimination. The immediate effects of such limitations will likely only be felt by users in or just out of college who share accounts with others who are also using large amounts of bandwidth. However, in the long term, what is now considered high-bandwidth usage will eventually become the norm as the millennial generation grows older and knowledge of these relatively new technologies proliferates into older internet users.
So while this decision may seem largely inconsequential to many now, it is likely to have more widespread effects in the future. While it appears that there is little legal basis to date to prohibit the actions that Comcast has employed, it is imperative that Congress take steps to preserve net-neutrality. The internet is a valuable resource and, as the FCC v. Comcast case stated, “is arguably the most important innovation in communications in a generation.” It is also what has defined this generation, and regulations like those allowed by this decision put the full capacity of the internet as a resource in jeopardy, and with a negative burden shouldered by the world’s younger generations. It is critical that the free and full access to the internet and its content be protected and maintained.