The guys at Ask A Ninja have posted an interesting take on the way MySpace is limiting what users can do at the site:

Over the last few months there has been a lot of debate over Net Neutrality, which basically boils down to one company blocking access to to another companies servers in order to gain a business advantage. This debate has usually focused on the companies that charge for bandwidth like AT&T, but recently Myspace has pioneered a new form — blocking sites that users link to in their bulletins and profiles.Right now if you link to anything at a site like “http://revver . com” (remove the spaces) Myspace will delete the link. Try it. That sucks right?

Revver is not the only site. There are dozens of smaller video and photo sharing sites that they are doing this to.

Why should you care?

Ask A Ninja was created because we were in control of where we posted the videos. That’s a big deal because if we’re forced to put them on MySpace video then FOX could take the episodes and make money off of them without paying Douglas or me anything. Which isn’t fair and takes away the incentive to create cool shows for you to watch.

Why is this against Net Neutrality? Because videos from Myspace Video and Youtube are not effected. It’s only these smaller, more innovative companies that haven’t been sold for billions of dollars.

The issue highlights the importance of establishing your own space on the Web, not MySpace, but your own Internet presence. Can a podcaster, blogger or anyone putting content on the Web be indie if they depend on the whims of a major site?

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