“Net Neutrality is Under Attack!” illustration by Free Press. Used under creative commons.
There’s protest — both in Washington and all over our newsfeeds this week — over the imposing possibility of favored treatment to companies that pay for a new “fast lane” on the Internet. In an ongoing back-and-forth at the Federal Communications Commission, there’s currently “proposed rules, drafted by Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and his staff, [that] would allow Internet service providers to charge companies different rates for faster connection speeds,” says the The New York Times. Here are three efforts of defending so-called net neutrality, which affects filmmakers and audiences:
- “We keep taking steps backwards. Why it’s important we fight the impending legislation again,” notes artist/designer Aaron Koblin alongside his recently share of CGP Grey’s explainer video on defending net neutrality, which is embedded above.
- If the FCC has its way, it would be slower to visit certain services, and cost more to have a faster connection per site, regardless of your ISP connection. To demo this effect just for the FCC, a software developer in Portland named Kyle Drake recently wrote some code that slows your site down only — if you work from the FCC headquarters. Hosted on Github, other developers have re-written it for different servers. Wired picked up the story. (via director Matt Checkowski)
- Dan Aronson, the CTO at Fandor, which is a streaming film service that competes with Netflix and iTunes, wrote an informed article called “Why Net Neutrality Matters to Independent Filmmakers and Viewers.” Indiewire also republished the article. Aronson points to next steps which include the goal of reaching 100,000 signatures on the WhiteHouse.gov Petitions microsite by May 24th, and it’s 75% there.
Update Re-published today on Thompson on Hollywood today, there’s another great piece by Chris Dorr called “Indie Film needs an Open Internet.” The author cites many film festivals backing the need, but asks an open-ended question: which organization will lead the effort?
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