Net Neutrality:

A must in a free society

Joseph Haynes
Greg Belle
Nick Dzierzeski

Definition of the Internet

A system connecting networks around
the world using TCP/IP, which stands
for Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol, a set of
standards for transmitting and
receiving digital data. The Internet
consists primarily of the collection of
billions of interconnected computers
(Economides 2008).

How the Internet Works

As you can see, your ISP is what connects your computer to the internet,
which other computers and servers connect to via their ISP. There are
several ways to connect to the ISP, which include using a dial-up modem
over a phone line, cable, or satellite.

Definition of Net
Neutrality

Net Neutrality is a network design

paradigm that argues for broadband
network providers to be completely
detached from what information is
sent over their networks.

This chart shows the worlds Internet restrictions. Internet black holes mean that
data information is really sucked up in a void meaning that it is there but it will just
keep coming and coming. A lot of smaller under developed countries surveillance
their Internet like Iran that blocks twitter feeds because of the recent Iran elections.
Some countries as you can see have minor or no restrictions on the Internet.

Our Stance on Net

Neutrality
We, as a group, are for net neutrality, keeping
the internet the same as it was since its
inception.

Table of Contents

History of the Internet

History of Net Neutrality
Seven Reasons Why the Internet should be Neutral
Politics and Net Neutrality
Economy and Net Neutrality
Religion and Net Neutrality
Philosophy and Net Neutrality
Culture and Net Neutrality
Legality and Net Neutrality
Arguments against Net Neutrality

History of the Internet

In 1934 the Communications Act became
law. First attempt to regulate phone lines
by FCC.
Vannevar Bush first proposed the basics of
hypertext in 1945.
In 1958, Bell System announced its Data
Phone service using regular phones circuits
(Anderberg 2007).

In 1962, DARPA lead the way in developing

the Internet.

History of Internet Pt.

2
In 1969, the network known as ARPANET
was created to connect 4 databases owned
by universities in the southwestern U.S.
In 1989, the Internet grew in popularity as
its host amount breaks 100,000.
Hypertext Markup Language (First Version
of HTML) was formally published on June
1993.
In 1994, the Internet grew by 341,634%

History of Internet Pt.

3
In 2003, the phrase network neutrality
was coined when Law Professor Tim Wu
presented a paper at the Silicon Flatirons
conference in Boulder Colorado.
In 2004, the FCC gained control of the
telecommunication industry, introduced
the Four Freedoms
In 2006, Net Neutrality hit mainstream
with the musician Moby appearing at a
Capitol Hill press conference

History of Internet Pt.

4
In 2006, a bill was struck down when the House
voted 269-152 to reject Representative Ed
Markeys net neutrality amendment to the COPE
telecom reform bill, HB 5252.
In 2007, the Internet giant Google finally flexed its
muscles with its hiring of former MCI lobbyist Rick
Whitt.
In 2008, the FCC made a critical decision when it
found by a 3-2 vote Comcast guilty of violating
Internet principles. In September of the same
year, Comcast filed an appeal to the FCCs actions.

The Seven Reasons for

N.N.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Economic Recovery and Prosperity

Free Speech
Civic Participation
Marketplace of Ideas
Social Justice
Rise of Telecom companies
Political Opportunity

Senator Ted Stevens

Senator Ted Stevens (Chairmen of commerce)
which means he is in charge of commerce over
the internet. He has a limited understanding of
the Internet and Net Neutrality (Stevens 2009). John
Stewart explains the epic failure that is Ted
Stevens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfga4bF
IUoc

Politics & Net Neutrality

Most democrats agree with net
neutrality and republicans disagree
with it. Republicans are telling
Obama that net Neutrality laws are
harmful (Karr 2009). Let it be known the
net was neutral since its beginning.
The way the internet is now is the
way it always has been. Our stance
is it should stay this way.

Economic Contributions Against Net Neutrality

These are companies that have shown top contributions of

money to representative republican Joe Barton of Texas for
fighting against net neutrality. These are the top companies
who help run the Internet.

Economics
Net Neutrality is the building block of the
abundance-based economy on the
Internet. Significantly effecting the dollars
that we would have back in our pockets,
online publishers would, under Net
Neutrality be able to raise its cost of
publishing back to its former level. When
Net Neutrality ends, the monopoly begins
again. Sites like West Seattle Blog are
profitable because of this reason.

Economics Continued..
The nightmare situation of having to pay a
company like Comcast to keep the Blog
would effectively put the blog out of
business. As of now, publishing is essentially
free. The only thing that you need is a
monthly internet service. If the old economics
come back to the forefront, preferential
treatment will come from customers who pay.
Only larger news organizations would be able
to afford the cost of ensuring website in
peoples homes (Preston 2009).

Religion & Net Neutrality

Relating to the economics of Net
Neutrality, the religious aspects of Net
Neutrality would be extremely affected if
legislation is not passed.
Under the Bush administration, the
religious right blog and evangelical social
networking lines were withering away.
Without Network Neutrality, leaders of all
religions would have harder times
reaching out to people outside their
normal congregation (Religious 2009).

Religion & Net Neutrality Continued..

Huge controversy was unleashed when
Comcast blocked the King James Bible.
Comcast was also accused for suppressing
Christians in China by blocking online
programs and other organizations from
reaching Chinas people (Jones 2008).

Philosophy & Net

Neutrality
The philosophy of Net Neutrality is
broken up into three course beliefs.
First, Digital technology, if
unshackled is a powerful means for
creating an egalitarian society.
Secondly, the end-to-end design of
the Internet is open to innovation.
Continued on Next Page

Philosophy & Net

Neutrality Continued.
Third, and lastly, market players should not
control the Internet (Cleland 2009). Those who
believe in Network Neutrality generally
have a strong stance on the freedom of
speech. The people on Network Neutrality
also want to make it clear that they do not
want to force ISPs to avoid
differentiating themselves. What they
dont want is for them to do it in ways that
is determined out of bounds (Anderson 2009).

Culture & Net Neutrality

Our culture is a very
dynamic one. Throughout
the years it has seen
many changes; in fact our
culture has drastically
changed even in the past
100 years. Although
many cultural changes
are brought about by
world events, even more
changes are brought by
technological innovations,

Culture & Net Neutrality

Continued
The way our culture communicates has
been changed by the internet. Never
before has instant communication from
countries from all over the world been
possible in such a new way. This opens
the issue of Net Neutrality with
countries who wish to censor or silence
their populace.

Culture & Net Neutrality

Continued
One recent example that immediately comes to mind
was the debated Iranian election. Public outrage
ensued when Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad was re-elected
in what seemed to be a rigged vote. The public of
Iran rushed to the Internet posting pictures and videos
from their phones from the protests. This was
regarded as one of the first time a major protest was
displayed in such a way. Thousands of people in Iran
posted up to the minute updates on their Twitter
pages, detailing police brutalities among other things.
This is where net neutrality comes in, as the
government started shutting down access to the
Internet to quiet the public.

Legal Issues
Who has the right to hold the reigns to the
Internet? Do the telecommunication
companies own the Internet?
The answer is no. Telecommunication
companies are merely a means to an end. In
other words, they are merely the gateway to
the Internet; they dont own the Internet
themselves.
Telecommunication companies should be
concerned with providing the best product to
their customers rather than limiting their
output. If they decide to change the current
system, assuredly the people would not stand

Legal Issues
Continued
For fair market competition, internet service
providers should be able to facilitate a similar
experience for a similar price across the board,
otherwise connecting to the internet will
become a monopoly scheme directed towards
the highest bidding telecommunication
company that provides the best plan.

Arguments Against Net

Neutrality
Argument:
Net Neutrality would keep broadband access providers from offering more
than one service
Rebuttal:
With Net Neutrality, you are offered a choice. If the internet was not
neutral you would be forced to utilize certain products dictated by the
service provider, to illustrate this metaphorically, this would be like
being forced to use Pepsi or Coke depending on the restaurants
(internet service provider) you are utilizing.
But the difference between Internet service providers & restaurants is
that you have the freedom to go to a different restaurant or store to
obtain your preferred soda. If where you live determines what service
provider you use, or if the government of your country is running the
internet, there is no where for you to turn to get the products or
services you desire (websites, etc.)

Arguments Against Net

Neutrality Continued

AT&T claims that 5% of its users use over 50% of

the bandwidth. Sandvine reports that over 44% of
its Internet traffic comes from file sharing. While
these numbers may sound drastic, they still do not
justify discrimination on the Internet. Claiming the
fears of people to be irrational, those who oppose
Network Neutrality do not look at the possible
scenarios of a broadband future (Davis 2009).

Concluding Statements
In conclusion, the Internet should be a
neutral place for all of its users. Not all cars
are created are the same, but all should be
allowed on the highway. The same is true
with Internet traffic. File sharing and
increased usage, as well as profits are all
issues to the Internet corporations. What
this is about, though, is the consumer. Its
the consumer that the corporations should
cater too, and its the consumer that counts.

This Presentation was brought

to you by.

Works Cited
1. Anderberg, Anthony (2007). History of the Internet and Web. Retrieved 10/10/09 from
http://www.anderbergfamily.net/ant/history/

2. Anderson, Nate (2009) Network Neutrality or Network Neutering. Retrieved from

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/editorial-network -neutrality-or-network-neutering.ars

3. Cicconi, Jim (2008) Net Neutrality: A Historical Timeline Sidecut Reports.

Retrieved 10/10/09 from
http://www.sidecutreports.com/2008/11/16/netneutrality-a -historical-timeline/

4. Cleland, Scott (2009) Neutralism: Identifying the Commons Ideology behind Net
Neutrality.
Received from
http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache%3AAGiK2dDJVsgJ%3Awww.n
tcompetition.org%2FNeutralism_the_ideology_behind_net_neutrality.pdf+m
aning+behind+net+neutrality&hl=en&gl=us&sig=AFQjCNHiOFb4JPbUKm2I VuRBAxWqgMncA&pli=1
5. Davis, Christopher (2009) Net Neutrality: Good for a few, Bad for most.
http://wistechnology.com/articles/6649/

6. Economides, Nicholas (2008). "Net Neutrality", Non-Discrimination and Digita

Through the Internet* . Retrieved 10/10/09, from aei brookings.org

7. Howe, Walt (2009). A Brief History of the Internet. Retrieved 10/10/09. From
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

Retrieved from

Distribution of Content

Works Cited

8. Jones, Lawrence (2008) Christian Coalition Backs New Neutrality at FCC

Hearing. Retrieved from
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080420/christian-coalition-backs
net-neutrality-at-fcc-hearing/index.html

9. Karr, Tim (2009) Seven Reasons: Why We Need Net Neutrality Now. Retrieved 10/12/09 from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/seven-reasons-why we-need_b_250175.html

10. Kristula, Dave (2001) The History of the Internet. Retrieved 10/10/09 from
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/nethistory.shtml

11. Lakely, James (2009) The Strange Philosophy Behind the Movement for Net Neutrality. Retrieved from
http://www.heartland.org/publications/policy%20studies/article/26061/

12. Preston, Jason (2009) Why the Future of New Brands Hinges on Net
Neutrality.Retrieved from
http://eatsleeppublish.com/why-thefuture of- news-brands-hinges-on-net-neutrality/

13. Singel, Ryan, September 21, 2009 GOP Senators Move to Stop Obama Net Neutrality Rules
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/republican net-neutratlity-amendment/

14. (2009) Religious Connections. Retrieved From

http://www.baptistplanet.com/2009/09/net-neutrality-and-religion.html

15. March 17, 2009, www.Youtube.com, Ted Stevens Tubes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfga4bFIUoc

16. United Press (2006) Experts speak out against Network Neutrality. Retrieved from
http://www.physorg.com/news70725523.html

Charts and Graphs

This graph explains the different bit

rates experienced by countries with
different laws on net neutrality.
Japan, as you can see puts their top
priority on the speed of their
internet.

 This graph shows the growing

interest of those seeking the topic
choice of net neutrality. The
increased awareness caused by
celebrities such as Moby have
brought it to the forefront. Now, it is
the subject of much debate.

 As stated previously, the video

downloading amount has largely
increased with the increase in
bandwidth. This graph illustrates the
growing demands of the internet and
the pressures of companies such as
Comcast and AT&T to limit bandwidth
usage.

 Once again, the failure of the United

States to keep a competent, high
speed internet is realized. Net
Neutrality along with a better
broadband infrastructure will help
the US compete in the global Internet
race.

 Effectively showing why those who

oppose Net Neutrality are misinformed,
daily internet traffic by 95% of internet
users falls in the middle of the graph
while the remaining few fall below or
above in the heavy users area in the top
right corner. This shows there is no reason
to limit bandwidth. Instead, the United
States should build a faster internet that
keeps up with the countries demands.

 This Verizon ad shows the works of

those who seek to limit the amount
of internet usage. With the less
expensive plan, a small amount of
downloadable information is aloud
while the more expensive plan offers
more but a still limited download
plan.

 To clear up rumors, this graph breaks

down internet usage with the use of
a pie chart. The information shows
that while fire sharing carries 29% of
the usage, this is not a reason to
allow companies to sabotage our
internet rights.