Freedom's Just Another Word For...Net Neutrality

From one Julius to another, the Ides of March took an interesting turn this year when FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the new broadband initiative, which we discussed that week here on the DotLoop Blog.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC extended its regulatory push to include broadband as well as traditional communications such as telephones and broadcast TV, within its jurisdiction. This is in response to a Federal Court of Appeals verdict who ruled in favor of Comcast last month in a case over net neutrality.

Here's what happened: in 2007, Comcast had limited access to the Internet to some of its customers. The FCC told the cable giant to stop it, but Comcast argued that the FCC had no business in dealing with broadband.

This was true; in 2002, the big cable and phone companies (At&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc.) successfully lobbied to change broadband from being under the umbrella of "telecommunications" to include it under the category of "information services." This seemingly minor category change meant that the telecommunications companies could effectively police and limit the Internet as they saw fit, which is exactly what Comcast did in 2007.

Net neutrality advocates (those who think the Internet should be open and fully democratic), derided last month's verdict in favor of Comcast. Even as late as this past Monday, it looked as if the FCC would not have the guts to take on the telecommunications giants who would be left as the gatekeepers of the Internet.

But all that changed Wednesday, thanks in large part to a huge swell of grassroots support coupled with a barrage of e-mails and phone calls to the FCC; their decision to keep net neutrality alive was a big win for the public.

So, what does this mean for you? Simple. It means that, for now, the Internet is still in the public domain; that no one company or groups of companies can limit access to it. It means a more open forum with universal access, and it means that once-small start-ups such as Facebook and Google can innovate and grow to change people's lives. It means that services like DotLoop can continue to grow and enhance without fear of being limited by cable or telephone companies.

Basically, it means more freedom to express yourself to the world.