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"For many members of Congress net neutrality isn't a polling point heading into the November elections, but few other issues hold significance for the future of speech and the democratic exchange of ideas in this country.
Here's the brutal truth: when the dust from rulemaking and the inevitable court battles to follow has settled - the Internet that we have come to know and love may no longer exist.
As troubling as the ISPs' vision may be, if left to their own devices this is the "Internet" they would build. It is one in which First Amendment rights are held principally, if not exclusively, by the ISP. They would be free to deliver only content they approve and can directly profit from.
The notion that the ISP oligopoly might edit what you can and cannot access online, limit your ability to speak to everyone with an Internet connection, or subject your online speech to a "pay to play" regime should be just as offensive as the phone company deciding who you can and cannot call."
"These are no longer net neutrality talks," says Meinrath. "These are mega-corporations talking to other mega-corporations about how they should carve up the Internet."
"For example, while calling public interest groups names, rarely are telephone and cable companies called out for spending millions of dollars in an attempt to gain control over what had been the most open and free platform for expression and commerce ever invented. Rarely, if ever, are rules seen as a solution to curbing bad corporate behavior -- it's always rules and regulations are seen as the tools of the radical fringe that wants to curb big businesses' progress. It's as if the Gulf disasters, the financial/mortgage meltdown and the contaminated eggs had never happened."
One of the Founding Fathers of the web (and no, not Al Gore wise @zz) speaks out on net neutrality.
"A perennial favorite topic for Berners-Lee is the idea of network neutrality, referring to regulations that forbid prioritizing the speed or access with which one company's data is available over another's. Companies that want you to use their services have an incentive to end neutrality for their own benefits - for example, those that provide voice services may want to slow down access to VoIP services.
Here Berners-Lee was the most passionate, saying point-blank that "the moment you let neutrality go, you lose the Web as it is - you lose the idea that you can click a link and go anywhere."
Did Genie come down with a severe case of cold feet?
"Genachowski has been swamped with public support for the move but seems intent on inaction - and doing nothing that would upset the powerful special interests that make up the phone and cable lobby.
Genachowski now has a choice. He can make a decisive and principled move to protect Net Neutrality and be remembered as a hero of the Internet, or he can continue to waffle and be remembered as the FCC head who stood idle as our online freedoms were handed over to a handful of phone and cable companies.
"The root of the FCC's lack of action, however, isn't the legal challenge thrown by the D.C. Circuit. It's more simple, yet harder to deal with. The problem goes back to a month after that triumphant Brookings speech, when AT&T launched an all-out "shock and awe" campaign against Genachowski. Using its formidable grass roots organization and its more formidable financial stranglehold over members of Congress, AT&T convinced Genachowski and his team, most of whom had not been in Washington for long, that they would be crushed if they attempted Net Neutrality rules. The FCC has been nearly paralyzed ever since. After that, as sort of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) set in. AT&T mounted a follow up campaign in May this year, attacking the "Third Way," locking in the despair of the eighth floor."
"On Wednesday, a group of popular musicians entered the fray, joining with MoveOn.org to press the FCC to write regulations that will prevent telecoms from asserting control over the flow of information. Jackson Browne, R.E.M. the Roots, Rosanne Cash, OK Go, Moby and Bonnie Raitt are among the artists to sign the letter. They will be encouraging their fans to contact the FCC and push the commission to write rules preserving an open Internet. "
So the real question comes down to is super wifi worth the loss of Net Neutrality?
"The Federal Communications Commission is opening up unused airwaves between television channels for wireless broadband networks that will be more powerful and can reach farther than today's Wi-Fi hotspots.
The five-member FCC voted unanimously Thursday to allow the use of so-called "white spaces" in the broadcast TV spectrum to deliver broadband connections that can function like Wi-Fi networks on steroids. The agency is calling the new technology "super Wi-Fi" and hopes to see devices with the technology start to appear within a year."
Comcast seems pretty confident everything's already a done deal.
"But the combination of NBC and Comcast is still undergoing government review, and Comcast has poured out its piggy bank in Washington to see it through, spending tens of millions of dollars on lobbyists, donations, ads and investments. That spending has recently become a talking point for opponents, who say that Comcast is effectively trying to buy government approval for the deal.
“It’s a big, expensive example of machine politics,” said Susan P. Crawford, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, who is writing a book about the proposed merger. “You hire all the lobbyists and lawyers in town; you hand out contributions to every politician you can think of; you buy the affections of every group that might complain about the merger, and you strike fear in the hearts of anyone who will need to do business with you in the future.”
She added, “It’s about as subtle as a wet fish in the face."
"For example, while calling public interest groups names, rarely are telephone and cable companies called out for spending millions of dollars in an attempt to gain control over what had been the most open and free platform for expression and commerce ever invented. Rarely, if ever, are rules seen as a solution to curbing bad corporate behavior -- it's always rules and regulations are seen as the tools of the radical fringe that wants to curb big businesses' progress. It's as if the Gulf disasters, the financial/mortgage meltdown and the contaminated eggs had never happened."
Funny how Congress's proposal seems so similar to the one mentioned in the above post.
Now I'm not saying these are necessarily evil, greedy, totally corrupt guys but this just highlights the crucial need for campaign finance reform and more effective measures to deal with lobbyists.
National public interest policy should NOT be up for sale to the highest bidder, neither foreign nor domestic.
"Net neutrality was the Obama administration's top campaign pledge to the technology industry and a major priority of the current FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, a key architect of Obama's technology platform. But frustration is growing – particularly among public interest groups – as the debate has dragged on over the past year without resolution either at the FCC or in Congress.
With Congress making no progress to resolve this issue, several public interest groups on Wednesday called on Genachowski to move ahead with his proposal to reclassify broadband as a telecom service."
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