Brian Knappenberger, who made the Internet's Own Boy Aaron Swartz documentary, has made an excellent, vital short film about network neutrality (or cable company fuckery).
I highly recommend watching it. I was one of the subjects in the video, as is Tim Wu, Susan Crawford, Lawrence Lessig and others.
The concept of "network neutrality" has been so central to our experience of the Internet, and such a driving force for innovation and expression, that most of us have taken it for granted. This Op-Doc explains the basic idea: when you visit a website, the phone or cable company that provides Internet access shouldn't get in the way. Information should be delivered to you quickly and without discriminating about the content.
Yet now the principle is under direct attack. On May 15, the Federal Communications Commission (whose chairman, Tom Wheeler, was formerly a leading lobbyist for the telecommunications industry) proposed troubling new rules: Internet service providers could split the flow of traffic into tiers, by offering priority treatment to big corporations who would pay higher fees. That would mean a fast lane for the rich and a dirt road for others, harming small businesses and users.
'A Threat to Internet Freedom' [Brian Knappenberger/NYT]
