On December 14 the Federal Communications Commission will almost certainly be voting in favor of doing away with net neutrality. If you’re not familiar with net neutrality, check out this article we wrote earlier this year on the topic. It is the idea of a free and open Internet. As it stands right now, users are able to access the Internet freely, with no speed or data caps regardless of the websites they visit. If the plan the FCC is proposing passes (and it probably will in a three versus two vote), the Internet as we know it may well be on its way out.
For photographers who own a professional photography business (and for any small business for that matter), this is bad news. It means that in the future, small businesses may be forced to pay ISPs (Internet service providers) so that potential clients are able to access our websites or portfolios as efficiently as the websites of our competitors who may have more money to give to ISPs to favor their websites. ISPs will be allowed to create “fast lanes” for those with the deepest pockets. And as any professional knows, website speed matters to consumers and consumers are notorious for having extremely short attention spans.
Beyond website speeds, videographers and photographers who advertise using videos may suffer as well. ISPs could potentially choose to throttle websites like YouTube or Vimeo based on what companies own which websites and who might be willing to pay more for better access. It's all a mess.
This has been an ongoing talk since regulations were put in place in 2015 to protect consumers by having a neutral Internet. What is different now is the FCC has a chairman who has been staunchly opposed to net neutrality. He argues that the regulations put in place in 2015 were flawed and by abolishing net neutrality, the Internet will be a free marketplace for businesses and that all consumers and companies will have different options to choose from based on their needs. He also promises that ISPs will have to be transparent with whom they choose to throttle or give preference to with “fast lanes”. In essence, this is the only rule for ISPs in the new FCC proposal. They can throttle whoever they want so long as they’re transparent about it. Perhaps if consumers had more options to choose from in regards to what ISPs to use to access the Internet, this may be a viable plan, but as it is right now, with so few ISPs to choose from, and that stand with much more money and power than smaller companies, net neutrality is certainly doomed.
If you stand for net neutrality, please visit battleforthenet.com, enter your phone number and call your congressperson. Urge them to do the right thing and oppose the FCC’s new proposal.
Lead image by pixabay.com via Pexels.
Hahaha. Did we suffer before this was enacted? Nope.
It's the "by default " state, we never had a net without net neutrality.
Not true! Visit Danette's site. Then look at the source of her web page. If you look past the Google Analytics, Heatmap IT, Facebook connect, etc. in the combination of JavaScript and CSS, you'll see the site is built on Showit. They use Cloudflare CDN services (the links are in the code, right there to see). What are Content Delivery Network (CDN) services? Oh, its where someone pays an ISP or backbone provider to put caches of content--scripts, GIFs, JPGs, streams, basically all the 'parts' of the web page--on that provider's backbone so that the items are "closer" (in network time) to the end user. It provides for a better web experience, say, than if Danette hosted the page on a server in her studio office.
CDN has been around for years. Akamai, who may be the largest, had $2.3 billion in sales last year. So the free market--really the state before 2015--has already been doing something like this for years. Akamai was founded in 1998. And, no, you as the end user don't pay extra to see those sites that use it and sites that don't only suffer because the chose their sources poorly. I'm thinking Danette is OK with the service she's getting from Showit. And, yes, the author of the piece is complaining about something that, in effect, they already use...
How old are you? That question is not out of disrespect. I'm old enough to remember an Internet where your level of access was based on how much bandwidth you were willing to purchase for your business services. Now, buying a big pipe isn't enough. You have to shell out for priority too. You've got network providers also providing services AND giving their services priority over the competition. That was never done early on. If it was, you got your hand wacked!
25, but france is really specific as internet is really cheap and bandwith has always been unlimited. (of course not the speed).
People do not realize that Corporate and Government are both one and the same. There is no difference now. But people who just mindlessly believe media without questioning anything are the sheeple that think the two are different. They are not! United States is a corporation in Delaware. Look it up. Your local Cops, Fireman, senate, are all corporations. Look it up!! Don't believe me. Look it up! You live in total fascism and have done so your whole life!! Wake up people. . . .
But there is a difference. We have a choice which corporations we patronize. I also believe that those who think the government is virtuous are inherently naive.
In your area, how many ISP can you chose from?
And that changes things, how? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Someone please tell me that this, if true, is limited to the USA only.
A few nations already have gotten rid of "net neutrality", to see what the end effect will be look at Portugal for one simple example.
Really? Look at Portugal? Please elucidate me as where in Portugal are citizens being harmed in any way?
Do you even know what offers are available in Portugal? The image shared above has nothing to do with net neutrality! Those offers are for mobile phones IN ADDITION of your plan - btw a mobile plan in Portugal costs 10 euros with 3-5 GBs of data... in this case you get your 3-5-10 Gigabytes of data and then if you use a lot of a specific apps, you can pay extra so that the data on those apps don't count towards your balance.
Imagine 10 GBs plan watching 4k videos on Netflix on your cell phone... those 10 gigs would vanish pretty quick.
Or let's say you are photographer and are on the field and using your cell phone to tether data... you choose the cloud plan since that gives you access to GDrive, dropbox etc... you can upload your RAWs easily without using all your data plan...
I think the US should focus more on pricing and competition where they lack, vs comparing to Portugal where it has one of the most advanced technological platforms in regards to data, tv, cell, internet offering - 24 dollars/month for 200/200 Mbps fiber optic internet + cable tv + landphone with free calls worldwide
I understand this is an important issue for net users living in the United States, but I live in South East Asia and unlike Puerto Rico I have fresh water supply here. As a ex medical professional, I know which needs urgent attention and focus.
Damn online business are going to tank and you'll see a resurgence of people just living without tech.
yep if it gets bad enough I'll drop the internet and read books and watch dvds.
"It means that in the future, small businesses may be forced to pay ISPs (Internet service providers) so that potential clients are able to access our websites or portfolios as efficiently as the websites of our competitors who may have more money to give to ISPs to favor their websites."
I highly doubt that multi-billion dollar conglomerates care much for extracting a few extra pennies from the photography business. It doesn't even show up on their radar.
Your internets future
I am pretty sure you don't even comprehend what's in that image...
I voted thumbs down on this article because this reversal of net neutrality hurts not only professional photographers, but internet users. The internet has been open for years and the net neutrality codified it. This is going to reward the large internet providers and harm consumers. We switched from a landline telephone to VOIP; I don't know how Trump's action to erase the history of Obama is going to affect us.