Good News for Net Neutrality

In Tuesday's class, we discussed the idea of net neutrality, a term that perhaps PC Magazine best defines:

A level playing field for Internet transport. It refers to the absence of restrictions or priorities placed on the type of content carried over the Internet by the carriers and ISPs that run the major backbones. It states that all traffic be treated equally; that packets are delivered on a first-come, first-served basis regardless from where they originated or to where they are destined.

It is interesting to consider how different our Internet experience would be were it not for this concept. The "Big Six" media conglomerates — General Electric, Walt Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom and CBS — dominate much of our online content; however, we still have equal access (at the same download speeds) to all other outlets, including independent media forms with opinions that may not jive with those of the Big Six. The absence of net neutrality would toss this equal access into question.

So what's the good news?

In an article posted on the Washington Post earlier today, the Senate voted to uphold net neutrality, a huge victory for, well, basically everyone except the media conglomerates.