Matthew Olson
The future needs the internet to be perserved
My name Is Matthew Olson. I am a film student and it has always been my dream to take part in a film community that is not owned by large corporate interests, one that exists purely to make great movies and not just to make great profits. This is a hard thing to accomplish of course since so much money is involved in making films. The internet is very important to me because it is a way in which filmmakers can mass distribute their work without having to go through a production company. The internet to me has always meant freedom from companies. It lets me hear an unsigned band play music from across the country, it lets me watch the work of independent sketch comedy groups who the network TV channels turn down. If companies win their fight against net neutrality, I believe it will be the beginning of the end for the internet. Look at how the radio was once a beacon of free speech, and how little that once bright dream resembles the clear channel monster that it is today. This will open the floodgates until eventually corporations have complete control over the internet. I don't know the effect this letter will have because I honestly don't know whether the FCC stands for the protection of communication for the people, or the protection of communication for the companies. I guess I am a cynic so I dread that the latter is the case. Please prove me wrong,
I want to leave you this with: Last year 20th century FOX sabotaged the release of it's film "Idiocracy" because the film had a strong anti-corporate political message. Something like that should be considered an infringement of the first amendment, but of course the US government couldn't have intervened without infringing upon free enterprise. Think about it, you can't give an entity something like "free enterprise" and then give them enormous power over areas that should belong to the government, because that is the road to totalitarianism. The internet is a form of communication and therefore it belongs to the FCC NOT Comcast. Please think about why you would want to sell away your power.
