Keep our internet free...say something before it's too late...

[Acebass]

Dear Ace,

Last week, a Congressional panel gave big telephone and cable companies the right to block or slow your access to sites and services on the Web.

Because telephone and cable companies, like AT&T and Comcast, own the lines that connect you to the Internet, they can control where you go and how fast you get there. Worse, they can block or slow your access to Internet-based services, like Internet-telephone, music and video downloads, and e-mail that competes with their own offerings.

The fight to preserve an open Internet is just getting started! Ask Congress to prevent big telephone and cable companies from blocking or slowing your access to Internet services offered by their competitors.

The clash today is really about the next big thing, video that feeds directly over the internet to either your computer or your television. Video takes up more bandwidth, and the big companies who own the lines want to sell you their own video services instead of letting you easily access offerings from other companies. If they get their way, cheap phone services or video downloads via the Internet may become a thing of the past. The article below from this week's San Francisco Chronicle summarizes the issue nicely.

Take a moment to tell Congress to keep the Internet open for everyone. Like a freeway, where any car can drive at the speed of traffic, you should be able to get what you need and go where you need to go without extra charges or slower service!

After you take action, please think of five people who use the Internet and forward this message to them. Every active Internet user has a strong interest in keeping the Internet open! Encourage them to join their voice to yours and tell Congress that the Internet needs to serve everyone equally.

Sincerely,
Morgan Jindrich
HearUsNow.org
A project of Consumers Union
1666 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 310
Washington, DC 20009-1039

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https://secure.npsite.org/cu/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr011=rbfnats801.app14b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=797



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California)
April 17, 2006 Monday, EDITORIALS; Pg. B4

Don't undercut Internet access

THE WIDE and unbounded Internet could soon be fenced in by cable and phone firms. Higher prices and less choice may lie ahead under a misguided bill moving forward in Congress.

A House committee dumped a plan to enforce network neutrality, a clunky term for an important concept. The phrase stands for an original ideal of Internet -- equal access and no hidden charges to climb aboard.

On one level, the fight is a battleship clash between consolidating telecoms, such as Verizon and AT&T, and major Internet services, such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. The standoff is over the next big thing: video direct to your TV or computer screen.

But the implications reach beyond what movie to watch. The cable and phone companies, growing bigger with each merger, want to cash in on their increasing leverage. Faster e-mail might cost more. A net-based company might pay more for a faster connection to customers

[FreakinDJ]

1. What MORE CENSORSHIP on our media

[Acebass]

2. We should eventually tell them no...sign up!...n/t

[fishwax]

30. exactly. we get a relatively independent media, and they find a way to

control it.

Don't let them control access to information.

[Robbien]

3. These people should have a link to sign up for sending emails

or something such as numbers or e-address, something to do other then a generic plea to call their Congressman.

Its a worthwhile cause,

Lead a horse to water.

[Acebass]

4. They had an embedded link...here it is...

https://secure.npsite.org/cu/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr011=rbfnats801.app14b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=797

[Uncle Joe]

5. We need a neutral net!

:kick:

[Acebass]

6. WHAT IS NET NEUTRALITY?:

WHAT IS NET NEUTRALITY?: Markey and others are pushing for the telecommunications bill to require " net neutrality ." The telephone network already operates on this principle. Anyone willing to pay a reasonable fee can get his or her own phone line. Once you get a phone line, it works just as well as Paris Hilton's phone line or any other phone line. Also, it doesn't matter whether you're calling Brad Pitt or your grandmother, the connection works the same. (This is the way networks run naturally. Data is data. It doesn't matter who sends it.) Open, non-discriminatory access to the phone networks means businesses compete on the basis of what they do with the telephone network, not whether they can afford preferential access to it. The telecoms want to reserve the right to sell privileged access to their high-speed networks. (Edward Whiteacre, the CEO of SBC Communications put it this way: " Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that .") So, for example, Amazon.com could pay the telecoms a premium and ensure that its site loads much faster than an independent bookstore's site . The end result could be a two-tiered Internet, where your success doesn't depend on innovative ideas but rather the ability to pay, thus stifling small businesses that could become the next Microsoft or Google.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Thanks for the definition Acebass,

this is what I am talking about, you explained it well.

[Acebass]

10. I can't take the credit ...

I get it from my weekly Democratic newsletter...they had a section devoted to it...I've archived it here if your interested...

http://politicalswitchboard.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=9370&hl=net+neutral

There's some interesting statistics in there...

[subutane]

22. thanks for all the work you do

Ace, you are very dedicated and good at networking. Thanks for everything you do and have done over the past year.

Peace.

[Acebass]

25. Thanks...it's passion a of mine...Good Governement that is!...n/t

[Uncle Joe]

28. Thanks for the link Acebass. n/t

[Acebass]

29. My Pleasure...n/t

[Ksec]

7. Done

Its fast Its easy. Just fill in your name and stuff and it sends letters to your congressman.

[PublicWrath]

9. signed and on the way... n/t

[Booster]

11. I'm sure most of these ideas came from AOL. They have been

doing these kinds of things for years, and that's the main reason I got rid of them as fast as I could way back when.

[Acebass]

12. Remember when net zero mean't you didn't pay anything for it...n/t

[joeunderdog]

16. AOL just got busted deleting people's email.

I think MoveOn batched something out and it targeted AOL's slimy practices. AOL filtered the email out but got busted. This is preposterous the way its going.

[Keseys Ghost]

13. K & R

[Anita Garcia]

14. There you go!

[joeunderdog]

15. GOP...Gonna Oppress People

Let's just kill the poor while we're at it. Man the Dems better stand up for this or Indy Media will take another kick in the crotch.

[Acebass]

17. They can shot ya...they just can't eat ya...yet!...n/t

[babylonsister]

18. Scary, especially considering Alberto Gonzales (R-patsy) was

all over the news today talking about (child) porn; I'm thinking he's leading up to putting the kibash on a free internet to thwart the pervs.

[Acebass]

19. There's always a method to their madness...

I wouldn't put it past them to try...

[autorank]

20. Enough already. This is their dumbest move ever, any one who votes

for this. Don't they know the power of the internet, particularly when the underlying concepts and operating principals are threatened.

This will the the Waterloo for anyone who votes in favor of this. It will be as hard to explain as a yes for Iraq.

Of course, the phone companies have no power for innovation, they've demonstrated that. Their skill is to use accumulated cash for acquisitions and congressional influence.

That's fine and they're remiss if they don't leverage what they have. However, they're just about to find out that pissing off a clear majority of your "rate payers" is a very bad move.

There will be an alternative at some point and a change in politics. What kind of brand loyalty will any of us have to telco or cable company when there's another choice.

Smart move, I don't think so.

Great post.

[Acebass]

21. Thanks...we need more people with your passion!...

[autorank]

24. I'm there. Used to be in the biz in the stone age;), the 80's

and a bit into the 90's. Which is the best forum to go to for organizing.

This really agravates me but I see a lining of pure gold: there are probably about 10,000,000 people on the net who are smart enough right now to understand this. If that group is mobilized, and there are enough places to start that, we're talking several orders of magnitude greater numbers than NRA brings to bear on it's best day and people who are relentless.

Let me know where the best spot is.

Thank you for the post.

[Acebass]

27. Onward!...

come join us...

[chalky]

23. A snip from an article in the New Yorker...and a link to MoveOn's petition

"Broadband providers insist that they have no plans to block access or degrade service to those who don’t pay a premium rate. But if some companies are getting better service, then all the others are getting worse service. Besides, there have already been examples of active discrimination. Last year, a rural telecom company in North Carolina blocked its users’ access to the Internet-based phone service Vonage, and in Canada the telecom company Telus blocked access to a Web site supporting the telecommunications workers’ union. Market forces will offer some check to this kind of interference—if a particular provider goes too far, customers will take their business elsewhere—but, in the world of broadband, market forces are weak, because most cities have only two major providers. More than ninety per cent of Americans get Internet service from either their local phone company or their local cable company, and A.T. & T.’s newly announced acquisition of BellSouth means that there will soon be only three major phone companies in the entire U.S."

read the rest here:
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/060320ta_talk_surowiecki

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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/?id=7356-5830993-rAJGU_iW.MDUj5HblobDFw&t=4

[Acebass]

26. Who's going to make sure they do?...thanks for the link...