“A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the music used to make me smile…”
These recent FCC inquiries make me feel as Don McLean did the day Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper all died in a single plane crash. The Internet is changing, and the government is doing everything in their power to rein it in and homogenize it in a series of targeted strokes. As some may say in YouTube parlance: “It’s unforgivable.”
“One for the money, two for the show…but don’t step on my blue suede shoes…”
There are obviously very heated opinions on both sides of the matter of re-regulating high speed Internet access. According to an article in informationweek.com, Democrats who hold the majority position in this five-representative group (five people decide the future of broadband? FIVE?!) seek to “identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality broadband services; promote broadband innovation, investment, and competition; and protect and empower consumers.”
Right. Like consumers aren’t informed enough already? That’s the beauty of the Internet; people can find out, dig, explore, and learn whatever they want to. If the government goes around tinkering with oversight, there will only be a flight by the real voices in the community to some other form of communication (pirate broadband?). I don’t know how bureaucratic government has ever spurred on innovation. Adding in the government card only slows things down, pushes innovation away, and keeps the real brains in the room (private industry) at bay.
“I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours”
One of the things which has always been beautiful about the Internet is the freedom allowed. Granted, for people who are doing “wrong” things, the digital footprint left in the sands of the online world are completely accessible by The Man should they want to find you, but this most recent FCC proposal makes me think of one thing: North Korea.
In North Korea, not only does everyone have to praise that freak Kim Jong-il, but they don’t even have Internet access. A 2006 report from NY Times offers that the impoverished country only allows “televisions and radios (to be) hard-wired to receive only government-controlled frequencies.” Barack Obama is much nicer to look at, but is that where we’re headed? Where the government tells us what and where and when and how much we can do online?
“Mem’ries light the corners of my mind; Misty water-colored mem’ries of the way we were…”
I hope that these regulations from the FCC don’t bleed over into other outlets of communication. America is still the best country in the world for my bottom dollar; the fact that I can say what I want to whom I want when I want (and they can choose to listen or not) makes me proud. Freedom is what our forefathers fought for against Britain; why would the FCC offer to take a step back when the World Wide Web is still one of the last free places on Earth?
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dJu1Jj7VTw
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/policy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225700512&subSection=News
