I don’t often use this blog for politics, but this is a topic I’ve been watching and feel we all need to make sure things don’t get any worse. I don’t know that there’s a bill or anything on the topic of Net Neutrality yet, and I would prefer to keep one from being seriously considered.
Here’s the email I recieved:
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.
Politicians don’t think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T’s CEO, who openly says, “The internet can’t be free.”
The free and open Internet is under seige–can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet
A list of all the ways you might be affected by Net Neutrality is located on the bottom of this link: http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html
As I said, maybe this will be a problem and maybe it won’t, but it’s worth paying attention to. My reading on this topic does say that Congress is looking at updating telecommuting policy, so this has the potential to become a serious issue.
Ok, so there was an amendment on the table. It was just defeated! Unfortunately, this was an amendment protecting Net Neutrality. There’s still more going on with this topic, and it’s by no means over.
If this interests you, keep an eye on the COPE Act currently before Congress. There’s a lot of concern that the major opponents to this bill get some serious money from the big telecommunications companies who want to make the internet a two tier service… and that’s bad for the little guys like you and me.
The Senate is also considering a Net Neutrality bill, so I have high hopes that with enough attention to the problem we can show that people won’t stand for telecommunications companies buying their way to laws that give them unfair advantages and too much control over the internet.