Net Neutrality 12-13-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Alaska’s Stevens Left Out in the Cold

Senator Ted Stevens boasted this summer that he had nearly all the 60 Senate votes he needed to muscle his massive telecommunications bill through Congress by the end of the year. But as his fellow lawmakers called it quits this weekend, his quest to overhaul America’s telecom laws ended in failure.

[ . . . ]

Some doubted that a rowdy coalition fighting for such a nebulous cause as net neutrality could shut down a bill backed by Stevens, the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

“This is a huge victory for real people and a clear signal to the next Congress that standing up for big bold ideas is a winning political proposition,” declared Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, a member of “Save the Internet” group that campaigned to sink the bill

But if his crowd is serious, it will have to do more than block legislation – it will have to get laws passed requiring net neutrality in the next Congress. That will be a great deal more difficult than thwarting Ted Stevens.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 12-12-2006

Filed Under Business Life, Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Trends | 2 Comments

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Why Jennifer Granholm Really Is Helping Destroy the Internet

InterrupT has an interesting post at Michigan Liberal where he argues that a franchising bill that looks like it’s about to pass, HB 6456, isn’t really related to net neutrality. Sadly, he couldn’t be more wrong, and it’s the type of wrongness that is going to lose us our free and open internet. Here’s an email from a knowledgable friend of mine on how these guys work and why it’s not as simple as thinking that we can just put through net neutrality protections.

Net neutrality politics have gotten a shade complex. Here’s a stab at sorting out why it’s important to pass net neutrality in a state, why it must be done in the same package as “franchise reform,” and why it’s critical even though it would only apply to Internet connections in that state.

Let’s start with power. Ultimately, all politics is a competition for the power to change things. Net neutrality pits the power of the cable and phone companies against…well…pretty much everybody else. They are more organized, well-financed and professional in the game of politics than “everybody else”, which explains why they are so successful.

[ . . . ]

What does telco power do when it fails to win in Washington? It goes to the states. They believe they can get the same thing at the state level. They can convince state legislators that build-out and universal competitive cable TV services aren’t important. And they can pretend net neutrality doesn’t matter. If they win in enough states, then they will have effectively outflanked Washington. That’s their strategy. They’ll have what they want, and we’ll have nothing. Worse, when they don’t need things from politicians, there is nothing to extract from them in a compromise. So, they’ll focus all their time on killing good things we’ll try to get politicians to do.

So what do we have to do? We have to go to whatever states they go to. And we have to put net neutrality and build-out requirements into their “franchise reform”. If we don’t, they’ll win. Simple as that.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 12-11-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

SavetheInternet.com Coalition Calls on New Congress

Companies like AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Comcast pushed the FCC to remove Net Neutrality protections last year and have since spent more than $150 million to keep Congress from reinstating the nondiscrimination rules that enabled the Internet to become an unprecedented vehicle for free speech and economic innovation. But in the end, they couldn’t overcome widespread public opposition, and Congress would not pass a telecommunications bill that failed to protect Internet freedom.

[ . . . ]

“We look forward to working with the new Congress to craft a comprehensive broadband policy that will preserve the open character of the Internet,” added Gigi Sohn, founder and president of Public Knowledge. “Consumers were the winners when Congress chose not to pass legislation during the session just ending that would have given control over delivery of Internet content to the telephone and cable companies and, in addition, would have given control of consumers’ use of digital media to the FCC and entertainment industries.”

The more than 850 groups in the SavetheInternet.com Coalition also include the National Religious Broadcasters, the Service Employees International Union, the American Library Association, Educause, Gun Owners of America, Future of Music Coalition, Parents Television Council, the ACLU, and every major consumer group in the country. The coalition also includes thousands of bloggers and hundreds of small companies that do business online.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

1.2 Million Signatures Are Louder Than Lobbyist Dollars

Filed Under Successful Blog | 6 Comments

Bye, Bye, Stephens Bill

Pack up all your cares and woe,
See the uninformed talk go,
Bye, Bye, Bad Bill . . .

I guess we all had our moments when

  • we didn’t know there was a problem
  • we didn’t understand net neutrality
  • we didn’t think it was about us
  • we didn’t think we could do a thing
  • we realized that we had to do something, anything
  • we made what noise that we could.
  • we didn’t know whether anyone would listen
  • we figured this Congress would let it sit.

Here’s what happened . . .

That petition you signed. I signed one just like you. There were 1.2 million people who took the time to do it too.

We made a noise of our own.

It was LOUD together.

It was LOUDER THAN THE LOBBYISTS.

IT WAS LOUD ENOUGH FOR CONGRESS TO HEAR.

They took action before they closed the 109th Congress.

It was you and me and people like us that did that.

You and I made a difference.

Take a Listen to the Reaction

Read more

Net Neutrality 12-08-2006

Filed Under Business Life, Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Trends | 4 Comments

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality Alert : FCC Chair Tries To Ram Thru ATT Merger

Imagine : a 5 minute wait for a Daily Kos page.

Imagine : that political blogs - perhaps the major channel now for political dissent in the United States - suddenly became hard, very slow, to access while corporate websites popped up in your browser quick as a corporate CEO robbing a pension fund.

Well, execs from the ATT and BellSouth Corporations that are seeking approval for a merger from the FCC have said they’d love to make that happen.

ACTION ITEM : Send Letter to your Congressperson or Senator protesting Kevin Martin’s attempts to violate FCC ethical guidelines and ram through an AAT/BellSouth merger that would threaten the Net Neutrality.

Media on this :

John Nichols in The Nation : http://www.freepress.net/19566

Josh Silver on the Huff Post : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/latest-washington-ethics-_b_35706.html

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
When Did AT&T Become Not For Profit? Was I Absent that Day?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

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