Jenkins, The Internet is in Danger!

By now you all probably know that net neutrality is being threatened again. This is a problem...for all of us. From casual surfers to people who make their living off the ol' tubes. It's bad news every way you slice it.

For me, it means it'll be harder for me to sell books. What if Comcast or whoever decide that Amazon belongs in a separate "Shop Till You Drop" package (look, I worked for Comcast for 5 years, they would definitely give it a stupid name like that) and that package costs an extra $5 to add on, but it'll get you access to Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, etc... For you maybe 5 extra bucks isn't much, but for me, jeeze... I'm already spending $10 for my Netflix upgrade, another 5 for my Bloggers Delight package (again, yes, they'd call it that), and another 10 for my news package. Jeeze, Louise, I gotta put my kids through pre-school too, ya know.

So you're browsing and come across this super cool sounding book called Run. It's about sentient androids, mouthy teenagers and the shenanigans they get into. So you click on it and BOOM. You've got a face full of waiting, because your speed has been degraded. Then you get this neat little ad: "Love books? Get premium access to Amazon for only $5 per month! With download speeds of up to faster-than-this-crap." Or even worse: "BLOCKED! NO BOOK FOR YOU TILL YOU UPGRADE, SUCKA!"

You don't get your book, I don't get to quit my day job. We. Both. Lose. But on a more general scale, no one should get to tell you how you surf the internet. The internet is one of the few unifying things we have left in society. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do or how much money you make. On the internet we're all equal. I can access Twitter just as easily as my favorite celebrities and blog right along side my favorite authors. It's the great equalizer. No one knows you're a dog, or not a dog, or not, not a dog. And it needs our help to defend it.

How can you help? Glad you asked. Here are some helpful resources


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Now, go get 'em.