Thanks so much to all of you who helped in spreading this open-source documentary <http://www.caliblog.com/2006/11/humanity-lobotomy-what-will-internet.ht\ ml> ! I just wanted to post a quick update - as well as remind people to continue in educating yourself on what's happening with Net Neutrality.
I don't know the numbers for Arin's cut <http://foureyedmonsters.com/neutrality> of the project (I'm going to guess they are huge) but I personally reached over 1,000 views on the cut I posted here. Which I know is small potatoes to a lot of people, but I'm not out to single-handily inspire 500,000+ people - it just feels to good to be involved. One argument I wanted to address is the "hands off <http://handsoff.org/> " perspective on this problem. There are a number of sites and groups out there who argue that the internet has always been free and should continue to be free - by "free" they mean unregulated. They argue that any legislation or protections the Senate might push through would only do damage to the internet. This mindset is flawed for two reasons, a) it suggest that government lacks the capacity to do any good or to protect any person, place or thing. But more importantly, b) the assumption or suggestion that the internet has always been "free" or unregulated is anything but true. Since day one of the internet it has been protected under common carrier regulations. But in August of last year the FCC made a very, very dumb decision - they changed the definition of DSL services to "information services", as opposed to "telecommunications services". Which threw the whole future of the internet up in the air - and every major telecommunications company is swooping in the for the kill while they still have the chance. Like I added near the end of the cut I posted, Verizon alone has over 200 lobbyist on the hill for this issue alone - that doesn't even include AT&T, or Comcast, etc. I will be adding this information to the 3rd cut of the video I'm working on - I think it's important for people to know that this "hands off" argument is at best uninformed and at worst disingenuous. (Again) Please! Spread this video <http://www.caliblog.com/2006/11/humanity-lobotomy-what-will-internet.ht\ ml> ! It's super easy. Just select the text within the box below - then cut paste it into your own blog, a bulletin, your profile, your myspace or facebook page... really it can go almost anywhere. View other blogger's reactions <http://technorati.com/search/www.caliblog.com%2F2006%2F11%2Fhumanity-lo\ botomy-what-will-internet.html> ... [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
