Please speak out as this will affect all of us if we don't stand up for ourselves.

Here are the issues: Right now the overiding setup on the internet is controlled by a concept called 
"NET NEUTRALITY" that means we are all equal. You and I have as much access and power on 
the internet as Wal-Mart or any other company. The wires that connect us have no favortism. 
The law is being proposed to allow the people who own the wires (they are regulated monopolies) 
like Cox Communications to be able to charge their competitors for phone service more for use of 
the wires than they currrently do, this would also allow a company like Cox to slow down or stop 
people from using their competitors phone services.

Here are some other possibilities of what can happen:

How would the gutting of Network Neutrality affect you?
 

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. Innov ators 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.
 

Political groups—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.
 

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, teleconferencin g, 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.
 

Blocking Innovation
 

Corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent
ideas that we’ve come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers 
are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don’t like:

In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

In 2005, Canada’s telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the 
Telecommunicati ons Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.

Shaw, a major Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers who want to 
use a competing Internet telephone service.

In April, Time Warner’s AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign 
opposing the company’s pay-to-send e-mail scheme.
 

This is just the beginning. Cable and telco giants want to eliminate the Internet’s open road in favor of a tollway 
that protects their status quo while stifling new ideas and innovation. If they get their way, they’ll shut down the 
free flow of information and dictate how you use the Internet.

What do you do?

Here is a link that allows your voice to be heard. I am asking all of you to do this. Our favorite small sites could 
be swallowed or become so slow as to be unusable if we don't use the correct services or web hosting companies.

If you are unsure of what this all means please send a private message with your phone number and a good time 
to call and I will take the time to explain it to you.

Here's the link that will send your feelings to our/your members of Congress:

http:// action.freepres s.net/campaign/savethenet

Having read the bill it is very complicated and difficult to follow. It is also allowing companies (named in the addendums) 
AT&T and Verizon to establish national Cable TV Franchises using (and thus directly competing with Cox Communications) 
the Cox Communications (for Example) wires to take Cox Communications Cable TV customers away from them. 
This is like McDonalds walking into Burger King--taking the Burger King food off the grill, putting the McDonalds food 
on the grill and Burger King having no recourse. These companies have fairly close to a monopoly on high speed internet.
If you want cable in Las Vegas, you use Cox, if you want DSL, you use Sprint. These wires go over across and through 
public lands, which means we own some type of control of them too. It is also akin to wanting a commision on deals 
made over phone calls. I say that the prices charged in Las Vegas are WAY TOO HIGH anyway for the same services 
elsewhere in the country.

Copy and paste this to wherever else you read. This bill is active and in play. Now is the time.

Please let your voice be heard.

God Bless

Jeff 

 

Current Issue Back Issues About BartCop.com Members (need password) Subscribe to BartCop! Donate Once Contact Us Advertise With Us BartCop: Entertainment The Forum  - bartcopforum@yahoo.com Live CHAT The Reader Bart Cook Sports Stickers Bookstore More Links Perkel's Blog Power of Nightmares Cost of Bush's greed White Rose Society Project 60 Chinaco Anejo EVEN MORE LINKS

Search Now: