Blog: Collective Disease Incorporated
by Lapis

****ACT Now****

If this passes in the senate, say goodbye to alternative views on the internet such as curezone. Dissenting views in all areas will be managed (censored) as the control of information (as in maintream media) will find its way to the net. The ramifications of this are HUGE folks. HUGE!!!!!!!!!

When I warned of this a couple years ago people laughed. Said it would never happen. The mass ostrich syndrome allows things like this to happen. For the masses it's time to poke their collective heads out of the sand and stop the loss of their sharing of freedom of information via the internet.

Date: 6/11/2006 5:52:53 AM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 2428 times

Net Neutrality Death or Life of Internet Decided in US Congress NOW, contact info!

author: Robert W. McChesney

"Congress is about to sell out the Internet by letting big phone and cable companies set up toll booths along the information superhighway. Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending tens of millions in Washington to kill "network neutrality" -- a principle that keeps the Internet open to all. A bill moving quickly through Congress would let these companies become Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow -- and which won't load at all..."

Here it is, it's been knocking on the door for a while...the corporate majors are about to strangle the internet. The voting is down to the wire. Please contact undecided members of Congress on the Committee [26 yellow dots below as undecided yet, 8 green voting already for net neutrality; 21 red voting to kill net nutrality]. In the map below caught off the website, many have NOT VOTED YET in this crucial issue that will decide "network neutrality" as well as future content streams of the Internet. Contact the undecided if you can at the website

http://www.savetheinternet.com ; media activist and author Robert W. McChesney is President of this action.

55 people determining "net neutrality" death or life of Internet, contact them

Counting the 55 dots:

21 have voted to kill net neutrality

8 have voted to save net neutrality

26 have not voted yet

What's at stake?

Decisions being made now will shape the future of the Internet for a generation. Before long, all media — TV, phone and the Web — will come to your home via the same broadband connection. The dispute over net neutrality is about who'll control access to new and emerging technologies.

On the Internet, consumers are in ultimate control — deciding between content, applications and services available anywhere, no matter who owns the network. There's no middleman. But without net neutrality, the Internet will look more like cable TV. Network owners will decide which channels, content and applications are available;... [or denied.]

This bill moving quickly through Congress would institutionalize middlemen. It would let huge corporate middlemen become complete Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow -- and which won't load at all -- based on who pays them more. The rest of us will be detoured to the "slow lane," clicking furiously and waiting for our favorite sites to download. Don't let Congress ruin the Internet, take action below.

Isn't the threat to net neutrality just hypothetical?

No. So far, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. But numerous examples show that without network neutrality requirements, Internet service providers will discriminate against content and competing services they don't like. This is a taste of what is to come with the death of net neutrality.

* 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 Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute.

* Shaw, a big 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 http://www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

This type of censorship will become the norm unless we act now. Given the chance, these gatekeepers will consistently put their own interests before the public good.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/338052.shtml

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