[Frameworks] net neutrality and US filmmakers

[david at lake ivan]

I just came from a demonstration in New York against the end of net neutrality in the US, a crowd of around 300 people.

If I understand correctly, the end of net neutrality will almost be worse for small filmmakers and small film venues in the US than it will be for anyone else. We are the ones who use video streaming in the normal course of making and sharing our work. In the past year, almost every festival or venue I submitted my work to wanted to preview the work on Vimeo. Every filmmaker I know uses Vimeo to submit their work to festivals and venues.

When US telecoms charge companies enormous fees to provide decent video streaming to US customers, will Vimeo have to charge their US customers bigger fees, too? Will Vimeo go out of business? Or just drop its US customers?

How will we submit our work to small festivals and venues if there are no longer affordable streaming services? Or show our work to the general public, for those films which we choose to share online?

Like a lot of people, I am a bit lost in the legal and technical aspects of this issue and I'm not sure I even understand all the ramifications correctly. I'd be happy to hear other people's thoughts and insights about this.

David Finkelstein
david at lakeivan.org
www.lakeivan.org

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