This week a federal appeals court said the FCC couldn’t make a rule that regulates what they call “net neutrality,” which is the idea that all internet traffic is the same. That assures that the streaming of a movie on Netflix will be delivered at the same speed as when you surf the internet.

Verizon sued the FCC because they wanted the ability to slow feeds from some internet uses in favor of others. It’s a complicated issue, and others explain it very well.

Oh boy, oh boy. This is bad. This means that your internet provider can offer preferential treatment to certain services they like and make other services pay extra to stream at an appropriate speed. This means that either you will be paying more for the services you love, or you’ll be steered to the services that your provider loves. This means that the free and open internet service we have always enjoyed may change forever.

Nerds everywhere are very worried about this. What can we do? Perhaps not much, but here’s a petition that may make a difference.