Just Like the Internet You See in the Movies

[Commentary] No Web sites that choke your browser. No waiting for YouTube clips to buffer. No email attachments too big to send. No files that take forever to download. No "Loading - please wait" messages, or spinning beach balls, or slowwwwly lengthening bars meant to tame your mounting impatience. That's how the Internet works in the movies.

On laptops and cell phones and the rest of the small screens we watch on the big screen, the Internet is a tantalizingly perfected version of the hiccupping marvel we know now. In a handful of years at most, the blinding speed and reliability we see in the movies will be available here in reality. Too bad it won't be available on the Internet. Without the Net Neutrality we have now, there's no guarantee that all content will continue to get the same fair shake. Are you comfortable with handing over to Big Media the power to decide whether some communications are more equal than others?