I’d like to take a moment to be sure that you’re aware of a piece of legislation currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. It’s the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006” also known as the COPE Act (HR 5252). If you’re reading these words, you use the internet, and therefore this legislation will affect you.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, providers will be able to charge companies to provide good access to their sites. For instance, if Amazon chooses not to pony up the dough, a provider would be able to slow access to them to a crawl. Search engines might redirect you to Barnes and Noble.<\/p>\n
That’s bad enough if you’re a large, monolithic corporation. What if you’re a small business? What if you’re a blogger? Or what if you’re an individual sending data to someone using a service that hasn’t paid a fee to your<\/i> service? How long would it take for your information to get to its destination? Call me nuts, but I believe that photos of your child should get to Grandma before that child grows up.<\/p>\n
Preserving the idea that information should be able to flow freely is a concept called “Net Neutrality.” Net neutrality understands that fees to maintain connections are required, but not selective fees that penalize the little guy or gal.<\/p>\n
Without net neutrality, small businesses and individual users will be negatively affected. It will come as no surprise that the lobbyists for this bill are large telecom companies.<\/p>\n
To add insult to injury, the bill also permits providers to ignore less-profitable areas when providing service. In other words, if you’re not in a densely packed residential area, you may be out of luck. Nice knowing you, Wyoming.<\/p>\n
This bill is expected to reach the floor of the House by mid-May, so I’m writing a snail mail letter to my Representative in Congress now. If you’d like to learn more, and I certainly encourage you to do so, visit http:\/\/www.savetheinternet.com\/ . They are in favor of net neutrality. They also have a petition you can sign.<\/p>\n
For more info, check out:
\nhttp:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/opinion\/oped\/bal-op.internet09may09,0,4559120.story
\nhttp:\/\/www.freepress.net\/congress\/billinfo.php?id=169<\/p>\n
It’s an important issue that’s not being carried by the mainstream media. I hope you’ll take the time to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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