Look, I know it’s a boring issue, but it is important.

Fortunately, via Digby, there’s a good analogy which explains the issue quite well:

What the telecoms are trying to get away with is like this: suppose you ran a business, and your product was delivered by FedEx, with your customers paying FedEx for it.  Now suppose FedEx came to you one day and said, "You are making a nice profit off our delivery service.  Besides what your customers pay, I also want you to pay us for it, or else your deliveries are going to be a lot slower, if they make it there at all."

That’s what proposals floating around Congress will do.  They would allow telecoms to charge fees to content providers, and not just content receivers.  You, the content receiver, already pay Time Warner (or whoever) to access, say, Google.  Now Time Warner (and the telecoms) want to charge Google to provide that content to you.

So what?  Well, the "so what" is that the Internet is the great equalizer.  I can access a small jewelry business just as easily as I can access a huge one, and they have equal access to me.  But with the proposed legislation out there being discussed, Time Warner could strike a deal with the larger jeweler, allowing their content to be delivered faster to your computer, while the small jeweler suffers (or gets no access to customers at all).  And before you know it, the Internet, once open and free (once you’re on it) is in the hands of a few telecom companies.  In effect, the content gets placed in the hands of those who own the pipes.

Learn more and write your Congressperson and sign the petition.