[Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: Congress is selling out the Internet]
Gerry Gras
gerrygras at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 20 19:39:10 PDT 2006
Cameron,
what about this one?
Gerry
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Congress is selling out the Internet
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:46:45 -0700
From: "Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org Civic Action" <moveon-help at list.moveon.org>
To: "Gerald S. Gras" <gerrygras at earthlink.net>
Google, Amazon, MoveOn. All these entities are fighting back as Congress
tries to pass a law giving a few corporations the power to end the free
and open Internet as we know it.
Tell Congress to preserve the free and open Internet today.
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=1>
<http://www.moveon.org/images/buttonxclickhere.gif>
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=2>
Click Here
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=3>
Dear MoveOn member,
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These
activities, plus MoveOn's online organizing ability, 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 doesn't have to
outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, MoveOn either pays protection money to
dominant Internet providers or risks that online activism tools don't
work for members. Amazon and Google either pay protection money or risk
that their websites process slowly on your computer. That why
these high-tech pioneers are joining the fight to protect Network
Neutrality1?and you can do your part today.
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=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=4
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=4>
Then, please forward this to 3 friends. Protecting the free and open
Internet is fundamental?it affects everything. When you sign this
petition, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep
the heat on Congress. Votes begin in a House committee next week.
MoveOn has already seen what happens when the Internet's gatekeepers get
too much control. Just last week, AOL blocked any email mentioning a
coalition that MoveOn is a part of, which opposes AOL's proposed "email
tax."2 And last year, Canada's version of AT&T?Telus?blocked their
Internet customers from visiting a website sympathetic to workers with
whom Telus was negotiating.3
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."4
Together, we can let Congress know we are paying attention. We can make
sure they listen to our voices and the voices of people like Vint Cerf,
a father of the Internet and Google's "Chief Internet Evangelist," who
recently wrote this to Congress in support of preserving Network Neutrality:
My fear is that, as written, this bill would do great damage to
the Internet as we know it. Enshrining a rule that broadly
permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain
kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would
place broadband operators in control of online
activity...Telephone companies cannot tell consumers who they
can call; network operators should not dictate what people can
do online.4
The essence of the Internet is at risk?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=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=5
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=5>
Please forward to 3 others who care about this issue. Thanks for all you do.
-Eli Pariser, Adam Green, Noah T. Winer, and the MoveOn.org Civic Action
team
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
P.S. If Congress abandons Network Neutrality, who will be affected?
* Advocacy groups like MoveOn?Political organizing could be slowed
by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy
groups to pay "protection money" for their websites and online
features to work correctly.
* Nonprofits?A charity's website could open at snail-speed, and
online contributions could grind to a halt, if nonprofits can't
pay dominant Internet providers for access to "the fast lane" of
Internet service.
* Google users?Another search engine could pay dominant Internet
providers like AT&T to guarantee the competing search engine opens
faster than Google on your computer.
* Innovators with the "next big idea"?Startups and entrepreneurs
will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that
pay Internet providers for dominant placing on the Web. The little
guy will be left in the "slow lane" with inferior Internet
service, unable to compete.
* Ipod listeners?A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes,
steering you to a higher-priced music service that it owned.
* Online purchasers?Companies could pay Internet providers to
guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors
with lower prices?distorting your choice as a consumer.
* Small businesses and tele-commuters?When Internet companies like
AT&T favor their own services, you won't be able to choose more
affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet
phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your
office.
* Parents and retirees?Your choices as a consumer could be
controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to
their preferred services for online banking, health care
information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.
* Bloggers?Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio
clips?silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the
hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.
To sign the petition to Congress supporting "network neutrality,"
click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=6
<http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ&t=6>
P.P.S. This excerpt from the New Yorker really sums up this issue well.
In the first decades of the twentieth century, as a national
telephone network spread across the United States, A.T. & T.
adopted a policy of "tiered access" for businesses. Companies
that paid an extra fee got better service: their customers'
calls went through immediately, were rarely disconnected, and
sounded crystal-clear. Those who didn't pony up had a harder
time making calls out, and people calling them sometimes got an
"all circuits busy" response. Over time, customers gravitated
toward the higher-tier companies and away from the ones that
were more difficult to reach. In effect, A.T. & T.'s policy
turned it into a corporate kingmaker.
If you've never heard about this bit of business history,
there's a good reason: it never happened. Instead, A.T. & T. had
to abide by a "common carriage" rule: it provided the same
quality of service to all, and could not favor one customer over
another. But, while "tiered access" never influenced the spread
of the telephone network, it is becoming a major issue in the
evolution of the Internet.
Until recently, companies that provided Internet access followed
a de-facto commoncarriage rule, usually called "network
neutrality," which meant that all Web sites got equal treatment.
Network neutrality was considered so fundamental to the success
of the Net that Michael Powell, when he was chairman of the
F.C.C., described it as one of the basic rules of "Internet
freedom." In the past few months, though, companies like A.T. &
T. and BellSouth have been trying to scuttle it. In the future,
Web sites that pay extra to providers could receive what
BellSouth recently called "special treatment," and those that
don't could end up in the slow lane. One day, BellSouth
customers may find that, say, NBC.com loads a lot faster than
YouTube.com, and that the sites BellSouth favors just seem to
run more smoothly. Tiered access will turn the providers into
Internet gatekeepers.4
Sources:
1. "Telecommunication Policy Proposed by Congress Must Recognize
Internet Neutrality," Letter to Senate leaders, March 23, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1653
2. "AOL Blocks Critics' E-Mails," Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1649
3. "B.C. Civil Liberties Association Denounces Blocking of Website by
Telus," British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Statement, July 27,
2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1650
4. "At SBC, It's All About 'Scale and Scope," BusinessWeek, November 7, 2002
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1648
5. "Net Losses," New Yorker, March 20, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1646
6. "Don't undercut Internet access," San Francisco Chronicle editorial,
April 17, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1645
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscription Management:
This is a message from MoveOn.org Civic Action. To change your email
address, update your contact info, or remove yourself (Gerald S. Gras)
from this list, please visit our subscription management page at:
http://moveon.org/s?i=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ
<http://open.moveon.org/o.gif?id=7356-824573-l4GFppNVRtMREk8ULvBTPQ>
More information about the sosfbay-discuss
mailing list