Net Neutrality

Today Nancy Pelosi tweeted this:
House GOP schedule today: defending #DOMA & stopping #NetNeutrality. Not on the agenda: #jobs (http://go.usa.gov/40D).
of course the haters tweeted this:
@NancyPelosi House GOP schedule today defending #DOMA & stopping #NetNeutrality / YES FIGHTING YOUR MARXIST AGENDA SO WE CAN GROW JOBS #TCOT
and this:
@NancyPelosi, not everyone can have a government job like you Pelosi.

So what is Net Neutrality and why all the vitriol? Here are a few FAQs from: Save The Internet

What is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies.

Net Neutrality is the reason the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data—not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

Who wants to get rid of Net Neutrality?

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies—including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable—want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. And they want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services and streaming video—while slowing down or blocking services offered by their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of a level playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services—or those of big corporations that can afford the steep tolls—and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.

The big phone and cable companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to gut Net Neutrality, putting the future of the Internet at risk.

What's happening in Congress?

Republicans in the House—aided by millions in political contributions from phone and cable companies—have launched a full-frontal assault against Net Neutrality and the FCC's authority to protect consumers' right to connect. In Early 2011 they introduced several measures to both "defund" the FCC's ability to act as a watchdog against industry abuses and to take away the agency's ability to enforce protections.

So while the thugs in congress, aided by millions in contributions from telecoms, want you to be afraid of net neutrality; the conspiracy machine at Fox News has the ignorant masses, once again, believing what is good regulation is bad. They want you to believe that net neutrality is a Marxist plot against America, which it's not.

Never mind the bullshit surrounding DOMA. The DOJ only said it would not defend the Constitutionality of the law. It DID NOT said it would not enforce the law... The Republicans, once again, are trying to get the public to take their collective eyes of the ball.

Why is Net Neutrality Important

In her 4/11/10 Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Susan Crawford outlines the reasoning behind net neutrality and the strategy for the FCC to achieve it. First of all why do we need it:

Until August 2005, the commission required that companies providing high-speed access to the Internet over telephone lines not discriminate among Web sites. This allowed innumerable online businesses — eBay, Google, Amazon, your local knitter — to start up without asking permission from phone and cable companies. There was nothing unusual about this legal requirement; for more than 100 years, federal regulators had treated telegraph and telephone service providers as "common carriers," obligated to serve everyone equally.

Under the Bush administration the F.C.C. deregulated high-speed Internet providers. The F.C.C. declared that high-speed Internet access would no longer be considered a “telecommunications service” but rather an “information service.” This removed all high-speed Internet access services — phone as well as cable — from regulation under the common-carrier section of the Communications Act.

When the Bush F.C.C. deregulated ISPs it hoped that it would prompt greater competition in Internet access services. The unintended consequences were that a wave of mergers kept prices high and speeds slow. And eventually the carriers started saying that they wanted to be gatekeepers — creating fast lanes for some Web sites and applications and slow lanes for others.

How to solve this? Crawford's solution:

In its decision last week, the appeals court said that the “information services” label given to high-speed Internet access providers means the F.C.C. cannot prohibit companies like Comcast from engaging in discriminatory activities... The F.C.C. has the legal authority to change the label, as long as it can provide a good reason. And that reason is obvious: Americans buy an Internet access service based on its speed and price — and not on whether an e-mail address is included as part of a bundle. The commission should state its case, relabel high-speed Internet access as a “telecommunications service,” and take back the power to protect American consumers.

Now the Glen Becks out there will tell you that net neutrality inhibits free speech and is a plot to spy on your internet activity. He couldn't be further from the truth and as usual is deliberately misleading hi audience.

The full NYT Op-Ed is here

Glenn Beck (still) doesn't understand net neutrality. Not even close.

Since the last time Glenn Beck attacked net neutrality as Marxist plot to take over the Internet, he's had ample time to research and discover that the issue is in fact about keeping the internet as an open platform for individuals and businesses (an initiative supported by major corporations like Google, Amazon.com and Facebook). Beck would even have learned that conservative groups like the Christian Coaltion as well as Gun Owners of America and the Parents Television Council support net neutrality.

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Glenn Beck (still) doesn't understand net neutrality. Not even close.

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