Today’s Los Angeles Times has an article on how net neutrality proposals are causing deep concern among songwriters and other entertainers. The fear is that today’s Congressional proposals will undercut the “smart network” technologies necessary to reduce illegal online activity, including copyright infringement, that have devastated the music community in recent years.

Draw your own conclusions but for our part, the evidence to back up the concern about illegal activity is overwhelming.

And since we’re on the subject, here’s a recent reminder of Net neutrality’s real stakes from Rick Carnes at the Songwriters Guild of America:

“The massive amount of copyright piracy taking place on the Internet is killing the songwriting profession. If a content neutral technological fix can be instituted to help curtail this horrendous situation, we are all for it. Without the adequate means and the will to protect copyrighted works on the Internet, the incentive to create will be completely destroyed. And our culture – and the marketplace of ideas that the Constitution seeks to foster – will be eviscerated along with it.”

For Carnes’ excellent testimony to Congress last March, click here.