Net Neutrality

For those of you who don't know what it is, you need to learn and learn quickly.  This is a dangerous time we live in, corporations are placing major strangleholds on our government and in some cases influencing policy to the point of “running the country.”  We have to stay vigilent when it comes to the Internet.  I know some of you are probably saying, yeah that's easy for you to say, you run an ISP so you are probably thinking the same way as the bigs, well if you think that, then you don't know me.  I am all for the small businessman, I detest big business but understand its value in today's society.

That doesn't mean I want companies like Comcast, Roadrunner, Sprint/Nextel, Qwest and Verizon (to name a few) running my country, or our Internet.  One of my long time heroes is the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners Lee.  When Tim was working in Switzerland at CERN he created the first web browser, and if he wanted he could have easily capitlized on it, and made it proprietary.  However he didn't, instead he like so many of his colleagues, Vint Cerf and Dr. John Postel and many others decided the Internet was for everyone.  Unfortunately now big business feels that they can capitalize on this, and they are slowly turning the Internet into the CommerceNet.  Since the early days when Merit Networks was the first real ISP, and then Steve Chase and his people at AOL came along, companies have tried to make the Internet their own, even Microsoft has done it's share in trying to make the Internet proprietary.

I could go on and on, but I think watching the video will have more impact; however once you are done, you need to get involved, if you love the Internet and you want it to stay reasonably free then visit the links below.

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jev2Um-4_TQ] 

Some important links for becoming involved with the Net Neutrality Campaign are below:

http://www.savetheinternet.com

www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html

www.handsoff.org/

If you don't like those, then here is a link to do a Google Search for more:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:*&q=Net+Neutrality&btnG=Search

If you have never gotten involved in anything in your life, and you feel it is time, then this is one of those causes that can save the world, because believe me when I say, you don't want big business controlling the Internet.

If you are ready to start taking action then click on this link:

http://go.axcess.us/?linkid=79&key=freepress

If you want to learn more about the bill here is the link on THOMAS at the Library of Congress – HR 5353 (The Internet Freedom Preservation Act)

Lastly, if you are an Axcess Internet customer please see this letter from me to all of you.

Regards,
jim®

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About jim®

James A. Restucci is the author of this blog. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internal License.

4 Responses to Net Neutrality

  1. jimr says:

    That is just the kind of left-wing politics that I was hoping…strike that, praying that Obama would not kowtow to. Next will be hearing about how the Dems want to bring back the Sedition Act! Can’t have anyone saying anything bad about the Great President Obama!

  2. Jason Raines says:

    Without government regulation, I suppose it would be up to the courts to enforce contract language for internet service. This is probably why Comcast changed their contract language after getting caught slowing down service for some customers without telling them. We don’t yet know who the new FCC head will be, but here is a link to an article about who it might be: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/11/06/obamas-new-fcc-transition-head-talk-radios-executioner

  3. jimr says:

    Jason, thanks for commenting on my blog; I agree with you; however on the same token, the FCC needs to stop interpreting their role as legislators. They are federal regulators, and should not be acting without legislative oversight. It will be interesting to see who is appointed the new FCC Chair when this election is over.

  4. Jason Raines says:

    This is an interesting topic with wide implications. Philosophically I support Net Neutrality, and am generally opposed to government regulation. However, in this case, I do think Congress needs to make strong regulations so the FCC will not be challenged when enforcing this ideal. It is ironic that Google and Yahoo support this too, since they happily accept censorship for their customers in China. The Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, is calling for increased regulation to support Net Neutrality as well.