Reply #14: I've been posting things about this for two weeks now... [View All]

[Acebass]

We'd better wake up and do something...


NET NEUTRALITY IN NAME ONLY: Last week, a House subcommittee rejected by a 23-8 vote an amendment by Markey that would have required net neutrality . Instead, the subcommittee vote to "codify the FCC's voluntary principles governing net neutrality ." The key word here is "voluntary." The bill would do nothing to stop cable and telecom companies from offering "premium broadband tiers and charge content providers more to use them." There are no provisions "barring anti-competitive conduct," such as favoring content produced by the company that owns the network. Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy lamented, "Members from both sides of the aisle endorsed a plan which will permit cable and phone companies to construct 'pay as you surf, pay as you post' tollbooths for the Internet. Special-interest money contributed to committee members has given the AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others another brand new monopoly to control--our digital communications network known as the Internet. The committee's vote against 'network neutrality' was more about the power of big money to influence their anti-Internet freedom position ." (Check out the top contributors for Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who is the sponsor of the current legislation.) Markey says the bill, as it stands now, " imperils the future of electronic commerce and innovation to the ‘world wide whims’ of broadband baron s , and ties the hands of the FCC in a way that will legally prevent it from saving something very special."