Konrad von Finckenstein

When hear the name Finckenstein I think of a large green monster, bolts in neck, playing three card monte on the streets of New York.

Last week the CBC news online was following the CRTC usage based billing debacle with almost an hourly coverage. This week everything has switched to a story about a murdered kid in the Dominican. So an important story that impacts the lives of literally millions of Canadians gets bumped for a single murder. Murder is sad for the families involved, but dedicating so much coverage for it is bizarre. I guess the CBC isn't really Canadian anymore as seems drenched in the stink of the American 24 hour news cycle.

The CRTC reversal is such a monumental event in Canada. It's the first time I know of where a community of online protesters (self included) have been able to gather what is now well over 400,000 signatures and actually pressure the government to listen to the people and govern them responsibly. Obviously there are political motivations involved seeing as there is likely going to be an election in May. Just the fact that people at a grassroots level actually achieved their goal without dissolving into just another place to buy all-natural hemp grocery bags and dated bumper-stickers inspires me.

In case you don't know what usage based billing is I'll give you the skinny. The CRTC is our radio and telecommunications commission. They're composed entirely of various animals in the rodent family and have about as much use as my testicles, namely none. If you think of all the weird, evil American government agencies that get to create their own rules and then enforce them, the CTRC is our media version of that. The FCC of the north.

The usage based billing system that the CRTC passed allows the major internet service providers to cap their monthly plans at a staggeringly low 25 gigs and then charge as much as $5.00 per gig on top of that. Their reasoning behind this is that they claim lower bandwidth users are now having to pay for heavier bandwidth users and that a cap would level the playing field. To a person who is not familiar with how bandwidth and ISPs work this may seem like it means something. It doesn't. Leaving side the obvious blurred distinction between bandwidth and file transfer these companies have the capabilities to handle amounts much, much higher than they are currently allocating. But even if they didn't have the framework to allow more traffic on their lines the solution is to expand, not minimize.

The market needs more access. You don't have to be an IP pirate to easily use 100 to 200 gigs per months. Gamers, Netflix subscribers, online television watchers, itunes, you tube, and imaging users all require large amounts of file transfer to do what they are currently doing legally. Then are people like myself who subscribe to different online educational programs and utilize video tutorials to learn. We're fucked by this. This doesn't even begin to cover the shear volume of small businesses that require heavy usage in order to run. Clearly the population all over the world is asking for more access. The big difference of course is that in the rest of the world business is keeping up with market demand. In Canada though we have the opposite. Our providers want to reverse the amount people use and then gouge them for being regular internet users and they have the CRTC's sign of approval to do this.

It can be hard for most people to understand why this is wrong. The older generations still think internet use is a fad and that it's somehow "bad" to be online so much. It's probably the same mentality that the horse and buggy generation thought when the automobile took over as the literal driving force. It's what the clergy thought once the printing press took off and what our grandparents thought when our parents started watching television and using the the telephone for business. It's monopolizing, price gouging on a resource that essentially unlimited. It has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with government approved greed.

Sorry for the early rant. I'm posting this unedited.

Oh I also had my song of the day all picked out and ready to go and then when I went to find a you tube video I discovered that this tune is on the Twilight Eclipse soundtrack. It's a little like finding out that a teacher you liked was a pedophile. I almost decided not to share it because of this fact, then I remembered how many of my favorite bands have songs in current television commercials... I'm looking at you Matt Pond PA, Slow Club and Vetiver! Anyway here it is.

By the way you really should be listening to these. Many of these songs you don't know and will probably love. If it's good enough for Twilight...