Senate Halts GOP Bid To Repeal 'Net Neutrality' Rules

[Ian David]

Source: A.P. via NPR

Senate Halts GOP Bid To Repeal 'Net Neutrality' Rules

Senate Democrats on Thursday turned back a Republican attempt to repeal federal rules designed to prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against those who send content and other services over their networks.

Republicans argued that "net neutrality" rules announced by the Federal Communications Commission last December were another example of federal regulatory overreach that would stifle Internet investment and innovation.

But Democrats, and the White House in a veto threat, said repealing the FCC rules would imperil openness and freedom on the Internet. "It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world," the White House said.

The vote to against taking up the bill, along party lines, was 52-46.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/10/142213971/senate-halts-gop-bid-to-repeal-net-neutrality-rules

---

It Was Close, But We Won: Viva Net Neutrality!

Today in the Senate there was a major win for freedom of speech and the Internet. In a largely partisan vote Senate Democrats defeated a resolution introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) which would have overturned the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) open Internet rules that are set to go into effect this month.

Though the FCC’s rules are not great, they do offer some protections for net neutrality on the wired Internet and overturning them would have been a huge setback for free speech on the web. During debate on the Senate floor yesterday supporters of the resolution railed against government regulation while opponents defended the rules saying they were necessary to maintain the openness and innovation that has allowed the Internet to thrive.

Those who supported the resolution repeatedly and falsely claimed that net neutrality represents a heavy-handed government takeover of the Internet that would quell innovation. The opposite is true. Fortunately, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) were there to set the record straight.

The senators explained that the FCC’s rules only formalize the open Internet principles that have guided the Internet to date and ensured the level playing field that has allowed small businesses to meaningful compete with large corporations. This principle is what has allowed small start-ups like YouTube, Facebook, and Flckr to become the kind of massive success stories that revive the American dream. As Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) pointed out, if Google or other online video sites would have been able to pay off Verizon or Comcast to slow or even block traffic to YouTube they never would have had a chance.



More:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/it-was-close-we-won-viva-net-neutrality



DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix Video: The Internets is a series of Tubes!
Topic started by IanDB1 on Oct-30-06 04:41 PM (3 replies)
Last modified by DinoBoy on Oct-31-06 03:51 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=36

[meow2u3]

1. K & R for freedom of Internet content

:kick:

[Old and In the Way]

2. Republicans can't control information access on the internet.

They've got the broadcast, print, and radio media pretty much locked up...but the internet poses a big threat in exposing their agenda and helping people to organize against it.

[savalez]

3. Can you imagine? Effen aye.

[hlthe2b]

4. Thanks to Al Franken and John Kerry for leading this fight...

Kudos, guys.

[amyrose2712]

5. YAY!

[Ship of Fools]

6. Thanks be to the gawds. This has been my biggest worry the past few months.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings, though. These f*****s need to be ousted, and FAST.

[Lint Head]

7. Wonderful!!!!!

[cosmicone]

8. This is great ... K&R n/t

[ProSense]

9. Kerry: Senate Vote A Victory for Open, Free Internet

Kerry: Senate Vote A Victory for Open, Free Internet

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, made the following statement in reaction to the Senate’s 52 to 46 vote today to protect a free and open Internet.

“This is a victory for innovation, consumers, and common sense. Today, the Senate refused to hand over the Internet to a small group of corporate interests, and we need to keep up the fight because we know this isn’t the last we’ve heard of the assault on net neutrality,” said Sen. Kerry.

Yesterday, Senator Kerry spoke on the Floor of the Senate to urge his colleagues to vote against the Congressional Review Act, which would have reversed critical open internet protections.

[blackspade]

10. Yay!

Even if the source is National Propoganda Radio.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Excellent and Hutchison should be censured for even trying, as she betrayed her oath to

uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Kudos to the Democratic Senators for turning back this fascist reach for total information control.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the thread, Ian David.

[lindysalsagal]

12. The GOP hates regulation, unless it's the internet or my uterus.

In those cases, full domination wouldn't be enough.

[BlueToTheBone]

13. WooHoo!

:woohoo:

[Omaha Steve]

14. Senate rejects GOP bid to overturn Internet rules

Source: AP-Excite

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats on Thursday turned back a Republican attempt to repeal federal rules designed to prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against those who send content and other services over their networks.

Republicans argued that "net neutrality" rules announced by the Federal Communications Commission last December were another example of federal regulatory overreach that would stifle Internet investment and innovation.

But Democrats, and the White House in a veto threat, said repealing the FCC rules would imperil openness and freedom on the Internet. "It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world," the White House said.

The vote to against taking up the bill, along party lines, was 52-46.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20111110/D9QU0QI81.html

[Old and In the Way]

15. I liken this to the Tories wanting to stop people like Paine and Franklin from printing their ideas

on the Revolution. They would have argued against "print neutrality", too.

The internet is a very real impediment from giving Republicans full media dominance of their agenda and ideology. They will subsidize Fox News, Red State, and Free Republic, but they want us to pay big time access places like DKos, DU, and other liberal/progressive websites that expose these creeps and their agenda.

[Plucketeer]

17. That's the way I see it too!

Hell, Reagan's "vision" would be all tidied up by now if it weren't for this medium. Something he/they probably never envisioned when they fired the air traffic controllers to kick things off.

[SoapBox]

16. The Dems/White House found a spine?

Shocking!

Standing up to the Thugs and Bullys of the GOPBagger Party??

...shocking.

[pacalo]

18. You see defeat where there's victory. Nice.

[timtom]

19. Finally!

A shred of justice still exists!

Good news, indeed.