Taken hostage by…

your ISP?

A disturbing post on the potential loss of network neutrality caught my attention tonight.

Imagine getting a ransom note like this:

“We have captured your bandwidth - if you want to prevent your visitors from suffering slow load times, then do exactly what we tell you.”

“Be at the city square at exactly 12:00 - alone.”

“Bring $100.000 in small unmarked bills in a black sportsbag - leave the bag next to the bench”

“Do exactly as you’ve been told, and we will let visitors through to your site, so you don’t go out of business.”

“and remember, no cops, or else…”

Imagine what it would be like if it was your ISP that decided which sites you could watch - it begins to smell of censorship.
Imagine what it would be like to have your ISP selectively choose which sites should be delivered to you fast, and which should be delivered at a reduced speed - regardless of any agreement you have with them in terms of download speeds.

Imagine if it took you forever to load up amazon.com, but that bn.com loaded as fast as it has always done - just because Amazon didn’t pay your ISP the ransom they demanded.

This could end up as reality if we don’t do anything about it now.

Head over to http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/ and sign the petition - or else…

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