Subject Net Neutrality is Important...
Posted by rlparker (DH Enthusiast)
Posted on 05/05/06 04:47 PM
I have always been careful to refrain from propagating any of the "stuff" that circulates around the Internet, as I'm generally not big on "causes" and don't want to fill anyone's inbox/forum with the latest internet "hoax", but I feel strongly that there is a "bad thing" coming from the U.S. Congress that, if implemented, could drastically impact our ability to use the internet in the ways to which we have been accustomed. This could well impact *all* users, whether in the US or not, and completely change the nature of the Internet as we know it.
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law in upcoming days that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Internet freedom. They would allow AT&T to choose which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. If this law passes, almost every popular site-from Google to eBay to iTunes-must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why over 400,000 people have signed a petition opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom.
We can all do our part to save the Internet-can you sign this petition to Congress? Click here: Petition in support of Net Neutrality
This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes in several days. When you sign, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress.
Snopes.com, which monitors various causes that circulate on the Internet, explained:
Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's...Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.
If companies like AT&T have their way, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to iTunes either pay protection money to get into the "fast lane" or risk opening slowly on your computer. We can't let the Internet--this incredible medium which has been such a revolutionary force for democratic participation, economic innovation, and free speech--become captive to large corporations.
If you want more information, here are two really good places to look.
SavetheInternet.com Coalition Web Site
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
New York Times Editorial-"Keeping A Democratic Web"
http://www.freepress.net/news/15263
This is the first post of this type I have ever made, having been online since long before we even called it the internet, and I beg your indulgence "just this once". You will not receive more of these "soapbox" speeches from me.
--rlparker
