So, it's been a good run. The Internet up 'till now has been a free marketplace of ideas, arts, and commerce. It has been my gateway to an amazing bounty of music that has never failed to give me the next great song or talented new band. But memories have conveniently faded regarding the fact that the Internet was started by Government agencies with Government investment, and has been correctly regulated as a Title II public utility for all of us and our benefit. Defined as "the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites," Net Neutrality is being threatened, poised now to be turned over to big corporations under the guise of "free enterprise."

The Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, speaks on the impending end of Net Neutrality, saying, "the FCC would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that's best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate." Well, that's just horseshit. The changes proposed, and perhaps now passed, would end the Internet as we know it. They would allow the big communications companies to pick and choose who gets access, bandwidth, or availability. This isn't a political thing, it's a democracy thing. So, in response to these proposed changes, I wrote Representative Comstock stating my opposition to the gutting of these equal access rules. An hour later, I got a canned response, where she stated her support to gut Net Neutrality, which she called an "investment killer."

Here in Western Loudoun, we have two distinct classes of Internet access. In Town, there is solid and reliable service and bandwidth. But head out into the country, and we have roughly two choices, neither of which are robust. I do, however, have to compliment All Points Broadband for providing us with pretty decent service as of late (we can now stream Netflix and another video), but in the county where some of the biggest Internet companies in the world have offices, switches, and data centers, it is a pathetic situation that we in Unison cannot even get a bloody cable or fiber connection. The telecom companies have no intention of "investing" in access for our rural areas without public financing. Ironically, such efforts in other areas of the country to establish municipal broadband have been fought by these same companies who say these new public systems steal their business.

If the vote on December 14th results in the gutting of Net Neutrality, your choices of where you get information, music, streaming media, etc. will all be in the hands of a few big corporations whose main interest is profit, not a free marketplace of ideas and content. The end of Net Neutrality rules will limit the way we use the Internet, and access information and content. Music will face significant negative impacts--independent musicians and artists may be required to merge their homegrown websites into big companies like Google or Yahoo to continue to sell their music. And some will just be plain out of luck, blocked from access for one corporate-based reason or another.

Representative Comstock told me that Net Neutrality has "hurt the high-tech Industry by keeping them from innovating." She said she supports "returning the Internet to the People." I think her definition of "the People" is flawed. If you want a free marketplace of ideas, an Internet for the people and by the people, don't allow this corporate takeover. Write your representatives and the FCC and tell them that the Internet should continue to be regulated as a Utility, and it should be for all of us, not just big corporate interests.

Audio Christmas

For a long time, I avoided any investment in wireless home audio, but recently I decided to go with the Bose SoundTouch 10 system. Sure, Sonos is a tight competitor, but I have always been a fan of Bose, and their system has a few extra features, and availability at Costco, which appealed to me. The SoundTouch 10 system will stream music from your phone or your laptop via WiFi or Bluetooth, compatible with many music streaming services, like Spotify or Apple Music, as well as, Sirius XM, Pandora, or your iTunes library. A well-designed app controls the whole thing from your phone. The speakers are powerful and offer great fidelity, and are small enough to hide on a bookshelf or in the corner of a kitchen counter. The result is continuous music as you walk around the house, depending on the number of speakers that you buy. You can also add more complex and expensive SoundTouch 20 and 30 speakers to the mix. If you are looking for a gift that will please your family music lover, SoundTouch might just be the ticket. More at www.bose.com.

Holiday Playlist

This month's playlist is for your Christmas Party. It's a blend of old and new Holiday music sure to please all musical tastes, and includes some of my favorites. You can access it here: https://tinyurl.com/ycsweedm Happy Holidays from Unison!

Steve Chase lives in Unison and tries not to play the music too loud.