When you’re up against the big boys like Bell and the CRTC, you only have a few options: make your point loud and clear (check), create a petition (check), convince the politicians that they want to be on the side of the people (check) and, last but most certainly not least, get funny and entertaining. The last option is about to become a reality with the help of a little Gurl Power!
When the CRTC decided to allow internet service providers (ISPs) like Bell to implement usage-based billing (UBB) and pass additional bandwidth charges along to smaller competitors, they not only made it possible to put a meter on the internet but also paved the way for giant communications companies to end the possibility of unlimited web access and effectively the net as we know it.
This can’t stand, and currently it’s not. A group called Open Media launched the Stop The Meter Campaign and a petition that currently has over 420 000 signatures, and counting. Politicians took note, too, first the NDP, then the Liberals and eventually even the Conservatives came out against the decision, the latter forcing the CRTC to go back to the drawing board.
Just what they will draw up is not yet certain and if their drawing is completed when it isn’t an election year (nothing official, but we know that one’s coming), who knows what it will look like. It could even be worse! We can’t give up the fight!
Since the internet belongs to all of us, not just the ISPs and their government backers, it’s time to make sure that no one forgets that an internet meter can never happen. The best way to do this, we at FTB feel, is with a real catchy tune!
We’ve re-purposed the Spice Girls’ hit Stop and made a video to go along with it. If you support this cause (if you’re a fan of this site, or being able to go where you want online in general, then you already do), then please share this video and this post as widely as possible and if you haven’t already done so, sign the petition! The very future of the internet as we know it may depend on it.
Now, without any further adieu, Forget The Box and Open Media are proud to present…
The Site Gurls singing Stop The Meter!
