New Mockumentary Highlights Why An Open Internet With Real Competition Is Important

from the though-a-bit-over-the-top dept

Mon, Sep 9th 2013 3:56pm — Mike Masnick

A new "mockumentary" called The Internet Must Go launched today, in conjunction with the latest court hearing in the Verizon case against the FCC over the FCC's net neutrality rules. I got to see a "preview" showing of the film last week with the filmmaker. You can see the whole thing below, or at the link above, which includes a number of extras. The premise of the mockumentary is that the major ISPs have hired a clueless market researcher to figure out how to convince Americans that we don't need an open internet with basic non-discriminatory end-to-end connectivity. That researcher then goes out and talks to a bunch of net neutrality supporters who school him on the importance of an open internet. There are a bunch of appearances in the film from folks you may know and recognize, like Larry Lessig, John Hodgman and Alexis Ohanian. As the filmmaker explained to us last week, the goal of the film is to try to make more people in the general public aware of the issue of "net neutrality," so it's more generally targeted at folks who don't spend a lot of time on these issues and who aren't generally aware of what's going on. On that front, perhaps the video will be successful, though I have to admit that, on the whole, the presentation is a bit disappointing. As I've said repeatedly, I'm a huge supporter of the concept of end-to-end neutrality and an open internet, but the movie badly caricaturizes the nature of the argument, and what's actually at stake, at times. The issues are a bit more complex than they're laid out, and it feels like that takes away from what could be a more informative film.

Frankly, where the film shines best is the part where it gets a bit away from the loaded term of net neutrality, and gets to the real problem: the lack of competition in broadband. For almost a decade, we've been pointing out that the so-called "fight" over net neutrality is really just a symptom of the lack of true competition in the broadband space. Get real competition at the service level and the issue of net neutrality fades away. What the ISPs claim is an attempt to get rid of "net neutrality" is really just an attempt to leverage a dominant position to get people to pay twice for the same bandwidth. So the part in the middle of the film where they start to look at the lack of competition, and how certain areas are completely underserved by the major ISPs because of this, the film gets more interesting.

Overall, the message that an open internet is worth protecting, and that we need a competitive and innovative broadband infrastructure, is absolutely true. I'm just not sure the film really presents that message in the best way possible. It's way over the top in how it paints the goals of the ISPs, and that takes away from what could have been a stronger message about how to actually tackle the lack of competition.

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Filed Under: alexis ohanian, broadband, competition, fcc, internet must go, isps, john hodgman, larry lessig, mockumentary, net neutrality, open internet, susan crawford

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 4:15pm

The ISP argument about their first amendment right is laughable. It is beyond ridiculous to claim that censorship is somehow tied to free speech. It's all about excuses for monetary extraction, their "rights" have not been violated in the least bit.
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 5:32pm
  
  Re:
  They're using public land and providing an important public service while getting government funding.
  
  They should not be allowed to stifle free speech. If they want to be completely private and have their "rights", then they should stop using public land and stop accepting government money.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 4:18pm

the cost of broadband and mobile phone use, including sim cards, is ridiculous! certainly in the UK a sim card in most cases is free. if it's paid for, it costs �1 ($2) and comes loaded ready to use. broadband is equally far cheaper than the USA and more competitive. this holding customers to ransom is bad practice, particularly when the service is absolute shite! the companies are more interested in sucking up to Congress to get more money for doing nothing and giving the worst deal for the most money to customers. the biggest offenders are the politicians who let the telcos get away with whatever they want (for a price, of course)
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 4:50pm

and dont forget, Hollywood and the entertainment industries have tried, are still trying and will continue to try to either screw the internet up completely, because it is possible to do things they dont like or to break it sufficiently badly so they can take it over and make it into an image of themselves. whichever of these two scenarios were to happen, the internet would be worthless!
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out_of_the_blue, 9 Sep 2013 @ 5:06pm

ISPs aren't the major problem: they're already regulated.
But "the Internet" is already largely controlled by only a few mega-corporations. You can't discuss it without noticing how solid if not unassailable niches already exist. There's Ebay, Amazon, Paypal, Google, Facebook; then Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft depending how categorized. They don't really compete with each other -- more like cooperate in one cartel I'd say -- and are so far beyond others in their respective niches as to be effective monopolies. -- Yeah, yeah, I'm sure some will contradict that, but it's quite remarkable how much control those have and how FEW the major corporations are.

Used to be common knowledge that BIG IS INHERENTLY BAD. Let's not let them become "too big to fail". Capitalism requires active policing to ensure actual "free markets", not just in theory if you've got billions for a start-up...

Think the Internet means more competition? Take a look at the graph here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/30/amazon_dot_com_holds_ludicrous_lead_in_online_retail_sales/
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 5:14pm
  
  Re: ISPs aren't the major problem: they're already regulated.
  ISPs aren't the major problem: they're already regulated.
  
  You remain clueless. The whole point of the Verizon v. FCC trial is to get the ISPs out from any (slight) regulation, by saying the FCC has no mandate over them.
  
  Have you ever made a comment on this site based on anything even remotely factual?
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 10:57pm
  
  Re: ISPs aren't the major problem: they're already regulated.
  How are you still alive? It is amazing to me that someone with such a failing brain could still be alive; no matter how long your incoherent (and amusing to read) rants last.
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dr evil, 9 Sep 2013 @ 6:03pm

free speech
problem A: it IS about free speech, but its not about Verizons free speech - oops.
solution B: let them (Verizon) do, present, filter, whatever they want, but make them 100% liable for all of their users actions (copyright violations, kiddie porn, etc) since free speech does not cover breaking the law.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2013 @ 8:20pm

the internet is slowly becoming exactly what that guy was trying to sell.
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Lee@Broadband Service, 15 Dec 2013 @ 9:53pm

Broadband Plans
Really good article bro! I have got massive information about competition of internet which I didn't much more before but the information I have got from here it's all are very authentic and that is why I will look forward to see this site for knowing more news about this issue. Thanks
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