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I hate stomping my own articles with a “daily double.”
This is too important.
A Note to Google Users on Net Neutrality:
The Internet as we know it is facing a serious threat. There’s a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called “net neutrality” – and it’s a debate that’s so important Google is asking you to get involved. We’re asking you to take action to protect Internet freedom.
In the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill, and one that may come up for a key vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.
Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can’t pay.
Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Please call your representative (202-224-3121) and let your voice be heard.
Thanks for your time, your concern and your support.
Eric Schmidt
Read the original at Google Help.
Here’s a few more links:
- Google Public Policy Blog – Google has a dog in this fight. The telecoms would love to deny packets from Google. Which would bankrupt Google more or less instantly.
- Wikipedia’s article on Network neutrality – lots of pro and con arguments.
- The savetheinternet.com coalition is more than a million everyday people who have banded together with thousands of non-profit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom.
What do you think? Is this overblown, a “clash of titans” with no effect on us little folks? Or is it the next step in a systematic campaign to wipe small content producers right off the web?
Maybe a better question: Do you think AT&T has your back?
[Note: Consider this blog post as a public service announcement and discuss political ramifications in more appropriate venues.]
It would be the worse move they could make, hope this never happens, the companies are looking at it with £ $ signs in their eyes, as if the bastards weren’t already rich enough, seeing they have the whole pie between them as it is.
You get online without them… after all!
.-= rob sellen´s last blog ..The Portland Bill site and what’s next =-.