Why Musicians Should Be Concerned About Net Neutrality

Most people just yawn when I bring up net neutrality. They didn't even notice when a federal appeals court struck down most of the protections of the FCC's Open Internet Order. Thousands of activists worked tirelessly for years to prevent giant companies from controlling what you can access on the internet. The FCC's Open Internet Order was a stopgap measure, but not the final solution. Now, the stopper has been pulled and we're all wondering if everything is going to go down the drain.

In the short term, this court decision just confirmed again that the internet does indeed fall into the catogory of communications regulated by the FCC. So in effect, the government is already regulating the internet. And that control won't be relinquished.

So what happens next can be tricky. Much of it boils whether or not broadband should be classified as a "common carrier" - meaning, they're just dumb wires regardless of what they're carrying, much like phone lines or cable tv. By classifying them as dumb wires, your ISP cannot legally block or charge more for certain types of content. This classification also would offer some protection from this scenario :

AT&T and other giant ISPs have long salivated at being able to divide the internet into tiers, charging content providers big money to have their websites in the top tier.  Websites in the top tier would be given preferential treatment, mostly meaning they would load quickly.  Websites in the bottom tier would load slowly or be blocked entirely.

Now imagine what this means to bands and small businesses who cannot afford to pay to have their website in the top tier (I assure you, the fees to be included in the top tier will be steep).  That means that fans and customers either won't find your site, or your site will load so slowly they'll abandon it.

The internet was never meant to be this way.  It was meant to be a level playing field for all. So let's pressure the FCC to classify broadband as a "common carrier" and fix this, right? Well...

This troubling essay at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Why The FCC Can't Save Net Neutrality illustrates how complex net neutrality really is. There will be no easy "fix" to keep it free. It will probably be a continual fight to keep it free.

I've read both sides. It makes my head hurt. But at the end of the day, I think reclassification is the best tool in the toolbelt at this time.

Please get involved. Learn more about net neutrality and why it's so important to bands and artists, then help educate others.  Place links or banners on your site to organizations that are working to help preserve the internet as it was meant to be, such as www.SaveTheInternet.com, www.FightForTheFuture.org,  the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and www.FutureOfMusic.Org.