Distant Rumbling Becoming a Roar

Big business begins push to shut down the Internet as you know it.

Keeping up with the world that moves at a faster pace than the one we enjoy out here in flyover land would be impossible without the Internet. The wide-open variety of content and lack of structure matches our own proclivities for disorder and liberty. But the wild west days of the Internet might be coming to an end if the world's largest phone and cable companies get their way.

As early as 1992, cable companies were petitioning the FCC for more control over who uses their "pipes" and what data is streamed through them. Now things are heating up. Recent articles in The Nation and PC World hint at just how far these companies would like to go in their control of Internet content and fees.

It boils down to this: the companies who own the hard lines that Internet data streams through don't feel they are getting enough compensation for their services. In fact, they are ticked that other companies are making money providing Internet content and not giving the pipeline owners any of it. As a result, the communications companies seem to want to turn the Internet into a pay to play, proprietary entertainment and commerce network. That means an end to the open forums, special interest sites, and certainly, insurgent and open political discussions.

What they'd love to do is not only charge us for basic connection, but also make us pay for the amount and kinds of data we download and stream, as well as charge licensing fees to businesses who do online commerce.

But there is another, more sinister layer here: how do they accurately charge us for our data use? They use something called "deep packet inspection" to keep track of all online activities.

Now we're not reknowned for our sophistication out here in the heartland, but we do realize this is already happening to many of us. Illegal government surveillance is still something that can't be openly admitted, but the communications companies are asking to take these privacy invasion practices and make them a part of ordinary business. Hmmm, that ought to make things a little easier for the folks at Homeland Security.

Certainly companies ought to receive fair compensation for the services they provide, but silencing a vital means of a nation's transactional communication is not the answer.

There are a few entities beginning to organize for the fight. The ACLU has been on this issue since the beginning. Also, Common Cause has a serious push on, as well as commercial arms such as Amazon and Google.

The communication companies want to end network neutrality and pull the plug on the open roadway the Internet has provided for information, entertainment, commerce, and debate. We know a few things about open roadways out here, and there's nothing quite like them. It would be a shame to lose any of them, paved or electronic.