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04-24-2006, 11:51 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
Posts: 10,465
| | Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
No, this is not an Onion piece, and MANY thanks to RMTHUNTER for giving me the nudge toward information on this in another thread today. I, like many people, thought this had died in the congressional water. Not so.
To read the details of the issue at hand (but read fast - a vote could happen as early as this Wednesday, April 26th!): http://www.savetheinternet.com http://www.freepress.net http://www.moveon.org
And many more, all linked to from the sites above.
Sign the petition here: http://civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/
Write to Congress here: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet
I am not a person well versed in political science, however; if you wish to read my blog about this issue, click here: smokeringsandcoffeestains.blogspot.com |
04-25-2006, 09:45 AM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The City In A Garden
Posts: 5,237
| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
I've e-mailed my rep, and if this ever gets past the House, you can bet I'll be contacting my senators. |
04-25-2006, 09:51 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
Posts: 10,465
| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
Anyone knnow which of the many parts of the hydra-headed FCC we should direct our emails, letters or calls toward? |
04-25-2006, 11:20 AM
|  | huh? | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Palo Alto, CA
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
I'm all for no content restrictions, but someone has to pay for intermediate bandwidth - and I assure you that it will be the users whether or not there is net neutraility. If there is neutrality, then providers will charge users for the bandwidth they use. If there is no neutrality, then high bandwidth web sites will pay more, and pass that along to their customers.
Of course, those who are hurt the most are web sites that use a lot of bandwidth but don't charge for it. I suppose the question is why they shouldn't have to pay for the bandwidth they use. |
04-26-2006, 10:30 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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Quote: | mrisch said
I'm all for no content restrictions, but someone has to pay for intermediate bandwidth | Trust me, the telecom behemoths have been passing the cost to their consumers since the day they put the "pipes" in, through exorbitant fees. Now that the pipes are long paid off from the steep prices, technology has advanced to allow consumers to get telecom services for less money on the pipes that are already paid for. Now big telecom companies can't gouge customers ad infinitum, and they hate that they might >gasp< have to be competitive in order to keep customers they have and get new ones.
All that aside, is anyone following this today? Is it televised? On live feed somewhere? On the radio? |
04-26-2006, 06:34 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
A blow was struck, but there is still time to rally and help defeat this in the House and Senate now that it is scarily official:
From SavetheInetnet.com (re-posting elsewhere encouraged to generate awareness): Quote:
House Ignores Public, Sells Out the Internet
Growing Right-Left Coalition Gains Momentum, Looks to Senate to Save Internet Freedom from Telecom Cartel
WASHINGTON -- April 26, 2006 -- Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee struck a blow to Internet freedom by voting down a proposal to protect Network Neutrality from attacks by companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast.
The diverse, bipartisan SavetheInternet.com Coalition vowed to continue rallying public support for Internet freedom as the legislation moves to the full House and Senate. In less than one week, the coalition gathered more than 250,000 petition signatures, rallied more than 500 blogs to write about this issue, and flooded Congress with thousands of phone calls.
The "Markey Amendment" supporting Net Neutrality was voted down by a vote of 34 to 22. The "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act" telecom law, or COPE Act, passed out of the committee without any meaningful protection for Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality means all online activity must be treated equally, and companies like AT&T must allow Internet users to view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site.
"The Commerce Committee is headed in the opposite direction of where the American public wants to go," said Columbia Law Professor Timothy Wu, a pro-market advocate and one of the intellectual architects of the Net Neutrality principle."Most people favor an open and neutral Internet and don't want Internet gatekeepers taxing and tollboothing innovation."
Major telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get Congress to change the rules to let them discriminate on the Internet -- forcing Web sites to pay "protection money" to ensure their sites will work properly.
"Predictably, the careerist politicians on the House Energy and Commerce Committee rolled right over in their frantic desire to do the telecoms' bidding," said Craig Fields, director of Internet operations for Gun Owners of America. "It makes no difference to them whether the Internet will remain a free and vibrant marketplace of ideas. As far as they are concerned, if big business is happy, all is right with America. And so we look with hope to the Senate, that supposedly august body, which prides itself on its more 'deliberative' pace and tone. They paint themselves as conscientious adults -- perhaps, just perhaps, they'll actually act like such when it is their turn to decide the future of the Internet."
Groups on the right and left have banded together, and hundreds of bloggers from across the political spectrum have galvanized behind this cause, with more than 500 blogs pointing their readers to SavetheInternet.com.
"It's shocking that the House continues to deny the will of the people on an issue that affects everyone so directly -- protecting the free and open Internet," said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Civic Action. "Our bipartisan coalition will rally the online community like it's never been rallied before, and together the public will overturn today's enormous blow to the freedom principle that's made the Internet great."
"Commerce and free expression on the Internet have flourished because it's available to everyone on the same basis," said Glenn Reynolds, of libertarian blog Instapundit.com. "That's how it should continue to be."
The SavetheInternet.com coalition includes: Gun Owners of America, MoveOn.org Civic Action, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Glenn Reynolds (a.k.a. libertarian blogger Instapundit), Parents Television Council, United Church of Christ, the American Library Association, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Common Cause, Public Knowledge, and other major public interest groups. The coalition is spearheaded by Free Press, a national, nonpartisan group focused on media reform and Internet policy issues. The rapidly expanding list of groups supporting Internet freedom is available at www.SavetheInternet.com.
"The diversity of this coalition underscores the importance of this issue," said Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet and Google's Chief Internet Evangelist. "When the Internet started, you didn't have to get permission to start companies. You just got on the Net and started your idea."
The COPE Act next moves from the committee to a full House vote. The Senate Commerce Committee is expected to take up Net Neutrality legislation in the coming weeks.
"The House vote today ignores a groundswell of popular support for Internet freedom," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. "We hope that the full House will resist the big telecom companies and reject the bill. But we look to the Senate to restore meaningful protections for net neutrality and ensure that the Internet remains open to unlimited economic innovation, civic involvement and free speech."
For more information, visit www.SavetheInternet.com | |
04-28-2006, 02:31 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
BUMP
Still time to sign the petition, write your Senator, etc on this issue |
04-29-2006, 06:50 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The City In A Garden
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
In the interest of keeping this thread alive and providing some good ammunition for your letters to Congress, see this post by Jack Balkin. |
05-02-2006, 11:33 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
In the interest of keeping the thread alive while there is still time to sign the petition at MoveOn.org and write a letter to Congress via SaveTheInternet.com before the May 8th scheduled vote, here is an excerpt from an email newletter, comparing the internet crisis with gas prices in a very effective way: Quote:
1. EDITOR'S NOTE: Net Neutrality? Naaaah!
Will the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee's
decision yesterday to reject net neutrality provisions kill the
Internet?
Of course not.
It'll just kill the all access for all people at flat (not
necessarily low) fees we've grown used to and that has played
such a large part in the Internet's growth.
More than that, what the elimination of net neutrality will do,
at least to an extent, is re-level the playing field in favor of
the telcos, and that's a very few very big players.
Ironically, some of the biggest players in the content business
-- eBay, Microsoft, Google etc. -- joined the chorus objecting to
the House Energy and Commerce Committee's passage of the
Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of
2006. Some of these companies are larger, and some far larger,
than the telcos for whom Congress looks likely to slice a bigger
piece of the pie. So what -- they're new economy, and the pie is
being sliced for the old.
Want more irony? The imminent arrival of tiered charges for Net
access -- want more and faster? pay more and more -- arrives just
as discussions of fuel costs have made telecommuting an
increasingly attractive gas-and-money-saving option.
The good news? The same House Committee that's giving us tiered
access is looking into gasoline prices.
Keith Ferrell
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/D...xN0G4R0BtPQ0EA | |
05-03-2006, 11:41 AM
|  | thread-killa | | Join Date: Dec 2000
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| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
Did you see that they also added on an amendment making things like satellite radio recorders (like Tivos for satellite radio) illegal?!?!
Did big oil sell have their majority stake in Congress to the RIAA? |
05-03-2006, 11:43 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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Yes, yes I did. I am FREAKING OUT about this. This will affect not only my favorite passtime, but my work (writing) and more. Freaking. Out.
So please pass this on to EVERYBODY.
We have until May 8.
Last edited by phoenixx; 05-03-2006 at 02:05 PM.
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05-04-2006, 04:23 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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things that go Bump in the night |
05-04-2006, 04:28 PM
|  | Hot and Juicy | | Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: off campus
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I haven't posted here, but I have sent my letters.  |
05-04-2006, 04:33 PM
|  | I'm Sparkly in Real Life | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: It's not heaven, it's Iowa
Posts: 23,975
| | Re Sign the Petition / Write to Congress / Save the Internet's Network Neutrality | |
For anyone who wants a capsule of what the issue is (I did, don't have time to read through pps of stuff) read the FAQs on the savetheinternet.com page. It's a nice encapsulation.
__________________ C-My Designs has been updated! Check out my new, improved website for incredible jewelry design. SUBSCRIBE TO The Beading Help Web Blog who knows, you just might learn something!!
Take the pledge. Just say no to  |
05-07-2006, 11:21 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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The Vote is Monday, May 8, 2006: There is Still Time to Act! The Personal Blog Nag Save The Internet, which has a nice blog about the OpEd pieces on May 6 MoveOn Free Press
Last edited by phoenixx; 05-08-2006 at 01:00 AM.
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05-09-2006, 12:55 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Granite State
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Update:
Today's vote was not a) taken? b) finalized? (I'm still rerading all my news feeds from today since I was so busy prepping for the impending doom of parental arrival)
From what I understand so far the big TelCo lobbies are trying to push both bills (different bills in House and Senate) to a head so they can go to closed committee session and not be under this ever increasing microscope of the public, who has caught on the their nefarious plan for the internet. |
05-09-2006, 01:31 PM
|  | Usagi Yojimbo | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: The Birthplace of American Democracy
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Argh. So many things to keep track of. I've been distracted by local issues. I haven't been able to form a coherent blog post on this one, but I have availed myself of the online petitions.
-JP |
05-23-2006, 06:55 PM
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05-23-2006, 07:38 PM
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Anyone know if they've come to a vote yet? | |
