The article begins by informing the reader that Olympia Snowe, senator of Maine, and Byron Dorgan, senator of North Dakota have joined forces yet again to try and protect net neutrality. They have come up with another bill that is almost identical to their old one. Apparently their former bill vanished after losing 11-11 in a vote last year.
The next part of the article defines net neutrality. Basically, net neutrality says that packets on the Internet should be moved impartially, disregarding content, destination, and source. About a year ago big name companies began to plant the seed that they deserved the right to charge extra for premium placement on their network. However, once a few big names such as Vint Serf the creator of the Internet, got wind of this, the counter attack launched. Their case is that by prioritizing the web, Internet users will lose the freedom that they love so much about the Internet.
Snowe and Dorgan's bill would prevent major companies from prioritizing. It would allow users to search for whatever they wanted and without a fee of any kind. It would also suggest that all broadband companies would have to give their customers a choice between buying "standalone" broadband service. Federal Communications Commission would have the final say when enforcing any problems that came from the bill's requirements.
Also, Edward Markey of the House of Representatives is said to be coming up with a net neutrality plan of his own, after his former bill was shot down by the Republican chamber last year.
I think this article was very informational as I am a huge supporter of net neutrality. I feel as though everything keeps getting taken away from the people as more and more of my life goes by. The Internet needs to be free because that is one of it's beauties. As of right now, when I open Safari, I can navigate to any page I want, and that is the way that it should be. What gives the ISPs the right to filter what we the people see? The answer is NOTHING! This is why net neutrality is referred to as the "First Amendment for the Internet." This is America, the place that was established based on freedom and we need to keep it that way.
