And let them know you'll drop them if COPE becomes law. There needs to be a Netizens' Union to fight this assault on the public digital infrastructure, to make it painful for Telecomms to even try to privatize it, and to create an alternative infrastructure that won't be taken over by the corporations.
http://feeds.dailykos.com/dailykos/index?m=3670Last Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee struck down a key legislative proposal
from Representative Ed Markey that would preserve network neutrality on the Internet. The legislation was offered as an amendement to Rep. Joe Barton's Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE Act).
Network neutrality is the guiding principle that has shaped the development and use of the Internet. It ensures that all users have access to the content, applications, and devices of their choice. The networks that provide access to all of this remain just the conduits to this information--they cannot interfere in it's delivery. Barton's COPE Act would end all that, turning the network providers--the people who own the pipes the information flows through--into the gatekeepers of the Internet.
The opposition to net neutrality, which consists of the telecoms and the members of Congress they've succeeded in buying off, insist that this huge giveaway of the Internet to a handful of gigantic companies is critical to the growth and economic opportunities, that without it the telecoms will not be willing to innovate on high-speed technologies. Rather than recognize that, operating under net neutrality since it's inception, the Internet has driven unprecedented technology growth and innovation.
They term net neutrality proponents "Luddites," afraid of Internet growth. The folks at Google, Yahoo, Intel, Microsoft and any number of high tech companies will certainly be amused to discover they are Luddites. Whatever talking points these folks come up with, their intention is clear: optimizing the profits of a very few companies while restricting your access to the Internet. Think cable TV, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what they have in mind.
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