Slashdot Mirror


Net Neutrality Act On the Agenda Again

blue234 writes "On January 9th, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Democrat Byron Dorgan reintroduced the bill popularly known as the Net Neutrality Act, and officially called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. The bill was killed in the Senate last year in a vote split along party lines (Democrats yea, Republicans no), with the exception of Senator Snowe, who voted with the Democrats. Now that the Democrats have a slight majority in the Senate, the bill certainly has a better chance, but it still needs 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster.

2 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. 2 Senators appeal to YouTube community for support by remove+office · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Obviously YouTube has a lot to lose if Net Neutrality is not preserved and if teclos start treating consumer's bandwidth in a fashion unfavorable towards the site. You can see videos of Senator Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Dorgan (D-North Dakota) appealing to the YouTube community for support regarding Net Neutrality here:

    Kennedy's video (3 min, 22 sec)
    Dorgan's video (1 min, 48 sec)

  2. Re:You chose force, I choose the free market by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sorry, but I think you are confusing lies with abstractions. The 'free market' is a theorerical abstraction for economists like a black body is a theoretical abstraction for physicists. Calling economists liars because the free market doesn't match your day-to-day economic experiences is like calling a paint manufacturer a liar because his black paint does not emit perfect black body radiation.

    In the real world, the free market is gummed up by many things, such as collusion, friction, well-meaning government interference, and bribery-motivated government interference. What is truly remarkable is how well it works in spite of such problems.