NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Damian Kulash Jr. in the NYT
Damian Kulash Jr. in the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/opinion/05kulash.html Beware the New New Thing By DAMIAN KULASH Jr. Published: April 5, 2008 RECENTLY, the House Judiciary Committee?s antitrust task force invited me to be the lead witness for its hearing on ?net neutrality.? I?ve collaborated with the Future of Music Coalition, and my band, OK Go, has been among the first to find real success on the Internet ? our songs and videos have been streamed and downloaded hundreds of millions of times (orders of magnitude above our CD sales) ? so the committee thought I?d make a decent spokesman for up-and-coming musicians in this new era of digital pandemonium. (snip) We can?t allow a system of gatekeepers to get built into the network. The Internet shouldn?t be harnessed for the profit of a few, rather than the good of the many; value should come from the quality of information, not the control of access to it. (snip) The Internet, for now, is the type of place where my band?s homemade videos find a wider audience than the industry?s million-dollar productions. A good idea is still more important than deep pockets. If network providers are allowed to build the next generation of the Net as a pay-to-play system, we will all pay the price. Damian Kulash Jr. is the lead singer for OK Go.