Net Neutrality Preserves the Writers’ Inkwell

The Internet is the writers’ inkwell. When consolidated publishing houses don’t consider our book pitches; when the top magazines present writers’ guidelines as a cruel joke; when Hollywood studios mop their floors with screenplays; and when news agencies operate on a skeleton crew of reporters, we can turn to the Internet.

The Internet’s open platform has become a DIY printing press, news agency and film studio. We can circumvent the traditional media gatekeepers who decide whether a writer’s words see the light of day. We don’t need anyone’s permission to publish or produce content. We don’t have to kowtow to industry “standards and practices,” or be shoved along stereotype lane. We can write and create anything. It’s not always lucrative, but it’s thrilling, liberating, and ultimately vital to allowing new work to flourish, push boundaries and influence society.

So when editor Richard Stayton of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild of America, West, received a note from screenwriter Robert Eisele describing big corporations’ plans to take over the Internet and destroy this equal platform – effectively drying up the inkwell -- he knew there was no other way to respond.

“This is the kind of news that mobilizes a Guild devoted to writers’ rights,” Stayton wrote in the October/November issue, which is devoted to exploring why an open Internet is so crucial to writers and content creators.

“Net Neutrality” is the basic principle that keeps the Internet free from corporate control. It means that companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T cannot block or control content on the Web, and that all Web sites and applications download and upload at the same speeds. In other words, any blog, video or Web site that I create will travel at the same speed as something produced by the mammoth media conglomerates.

The Federal Communications Commission is on the verge of making Net Neutrality a hard and fast rule. But AT&T et al want to take Net Neutrality out back and pummel it because their future business plans for the Internet are based on charging companies – and everyday folks – to prioritize their content. If you can’t pay, your content could get lost in cyberspace. If the industry is successful in defeating Net Neutrality, it will be a colossal loss for the entire creative class.

The main article (p.25) in Written By by author F.X. Feeny describes how the Internet is one of the most transformative tools in human history, and how its open platform has crushed barriers to creation and innovation – the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type.

Feeny writes:

The early Renaissance, which produced Gutenberg in the first place, was suddenly energized beyond its original limits: Maps could find their way into the hands of dreamers like Christopher Columbus; texts of an entirely new sacred order were made possible by such as Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine. Truly, every wondrous leap of the 500 years between 1450 and 1950 was pioneered by that fantastic capacity we now take for granted as a basic right: to privately “own” the world’s common knowledge and think it over for ourselves.

Feeny describes how the telecom industry wants to profit not just from the Internet connection it delivers, but also from the content and creativity that travels through the pipes:

The telecom giants are belatedly seeking instead a creator’s royalty for what others have created. It’s a bit like the person who’s built a road, charging not only a toll from every driver (which is fair; each of us must pay to get on the Internet; that’s a given) but demanding yet another piece from the auto manufacturers, the oil companies that fuel the cars, and from the restaurants and theaters their road leads to, as well as a nickel against every toy or comic book in the hands of little passengers riding in kid carseats.

In 2007, Writers Guild members engaged in a national strike to win residuals for re-use of content on the Internet, and used the Net – creating blogs and viral videos – to secure victory. Screenwriter Robert Eisele, who wroteThe Great Debaters, also contributed an article in this month’s Written By issue describing what’s at stake for the creative community and the public in the Net Neutrality fight:

The six media conglomerates will pay the ISPs for faster speeds. Imagine purchasing a download of Iron Man from Paramount and receiving it in a few minutes, then waiting hours for a controversial documentary or short. Consumers would soon lose patience with slow deliveries of independent content, and the Internet as we know it would be gone forever.

Throughout the country, the entire flow of information and entertainment would be controlled by a new regime of gatekeepers with a stranglehold on the pipeline we call the Internet. And when a citizen would post his blog in protest, no one would read it because it would take too long to find, or the Internet provider would refuse access to it. In a world like that, only corporations would enjoy the right of free speech. Americans, of all people, must never let that happen.

Let’s not allow the telecom industry and Big Media to stifle our words and ideas. To fight for freedom on the Internet, join the nearly 1.7 million people who are calling for a strong Net Neutrality rule from the FCC. Then feel free to write about it on the Internet – after all, you don’t need anyone’s permission.

To read more articles about Net Neutrality and Internet freedom in this month’s Written By magazine, click here.