It's OUR net!

[lazur]

Anyone seen the message from the CEO of Ebay? There's a movement by cable and telephone companies to get the internet regulated and divided into two tiers of service, with the top tier being reserved for large companies who will have to pay very high fees, and the bottom tier (the slow tier) reserved for everyone else.

Note that there's a link where you can join in and send a letter to your senators and congress men/women.

Here's the message:

Net Neutrality and the eBay Community: A Call to Action


Dear eBay Community Member,

As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington. Please join me by clicking here (link: http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/takeaction/?campaign_id=neutrality1) right now to send a message to your representatives in Congress before it is too late. You can make the difference.

Thank you for reading this note. I hope you'll make your voice heard today.

Sincerely,

Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.

P.S. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact us at [email protected].

 

[jaguarr]

A related article:

Copps on 'Neutrality’
Says FCC Has Power to Ensure Nondiscrimination
By Ted Hearn 5/29/2006

In this story:
'SECOND PHASE’
ADELPHIA DEAL TIE

Washington— The Federal Communications Commission has authority under current law to ensure that broadband access providers, today mainly cable and phone companies, do not discriminate against Web-based providers of content, search services, and applications, FCC commissioner Michael Copps said last Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, Copps stressed that the agency needed to go beyond hortatory policy principles and adopt enforceable rules that guarantee network neutrality and shield Internet companies without wires into millions of homes from potential misconduct by companies that do.
'SECOND PHASE’

“I think we have authority to go now to the second phase of network neutrality, to make sure that there’s not discrimination against those that are not affiliated with the network owners,” Copps said in a press briefing held in his office.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin, in contrast, has favored a deregulatory approach. Last August, he won agency adoption of nonbinding principles related to net neutrality, but he has not endorsed the need for specific agency rules that Copps wants.

The FCC has classified both cable-modem and digital subscriber line service as information services not subject to common-carrier rules that come with nondiscrimination requirements.

Although some have questioned FCC authority to impose network neutrality on information service providers under Title I of the Communications Act, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a majority opinion last June indicating otherwise.

“The [FCC] remains free to impose special regulatory duties on facilities-based [Internet Service Providers] under its Title I ancillary jurisdiction,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services.

Copps indicated the FCC could rely on Title I authority to act. “I think we have a good bit of authority in serving the public interest in keeping the networks open to move ahead on this,” he said.

Copps’s comments came amid a raging net neutrality debate on Capitol Hill that pits phone and cable giants like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. against the Internet’s most famous and wealthiest brands, including Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and eBay.

Major cable and phone companies are fighting net neutrality regulation, fearing it would hurt network investment and bar them from recovering any infrastructure costs from companies benefiting from high-speed access to end users.

The House Judiciary Committee was to vote last Thursday on a bill sponsored by its chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), that would punish network neutrality violations under federal antitrust laws. On June 20, the Senate Commerce Committee is likely to vote on bill sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) that would, among other things, ban broadband providers from demanding fees from Web players in exchange for priority treatment of their traffic.

“I like Senator Dorgan’s depiction of it as Internet freedom,” Copps said. “I think that’s what this all about, whether we can preserve the openness of the Internet that made it so great …”

Last year, AT&T could not merge with SBC Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. could not combine with MCI Inc. until they agreed to comply with the FCC’s network neutrality principles for two years.
ADELPHIA DEAL TIE

Then, as now, the FCC’s leadership is evenly divided with two Republicans and two Democrats, a deadlock that almost forces merger applicants to bargain with Copps and FCC Democrat Jonathan Adelstein in order to obtain agency approval.

Comcast and Time Warner Inc. want to buy Adelphia Communications Corp.’s 5 million cable subscribers, but the $16.9 billion deal has lingered at the FCC for more than a year, partly because Time Warner wanted to wait to see whether the Senate would confirm Washington, D.C., communications attorney Robert McDowell as the third FCC Republican. That nomination has stalled in the Senate.

In his review of the Adelphia merger, Copps indicated net neutrality would play a role as would the ability of cable competitors to obtain programming on reasonable terms.

“What’s [the merger] mean for consumers in terms of access to programming? What’s it mean with regard to the future of the Internet? I’ve talked about this control of content and conduit,” he said. “So I think we need to look at the merger with those questions in mind.”

jag

 

[jaguarr]

Keep in mind, also that Microsoft is supposedly entertaining the idea of buying out eBay, which would probably change the tune eBay is currently singing on this issue since M$ would love nothing more than to be able to exact a certain measure of control over the internet through their government connections. It would be a disaster of a takeover, since eBay and Microsoft have VERY divergent corporate cultures.

jag

 

[Kable24]

The net neutrality bill was passed last week guys. We have nothing to fear.


http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233732

 

[Maxwell Smart]

The net neutrality bill was passed last week guys. We have nothing to fear.

Good.

 

[jaguarr]

Good.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Agreed.

jag

 

[Darthphere]

Al Gore-"Im taking back the internet *****es."

 

[Maxwell Smart]

Al Gore-"Im taking back the internet *****es."

(LMAO)

 

[Knives122]

good work Al Gore

 

[Tangled Web]

l Gore is tight.