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Congressmen Send Letters, Hope For Net Neutrality Fades
The odds of the FCC implementing net-neutrality rules just got much longer. "A bipartisan group of politicians on Monday told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in no uncertain terms, to abandon his plans to impose controversial new rules on broadband providers until the US Congress changes the law. Seventy-four House Democrats sent Genachowski ... a letter saying his ideas will 'jeopardize jobs' and 'should not be done without additional direction from Congress.' A separate letter from 37 Senate Republicans, also sent Monday, was more pointed. It accused Genachowski of pushing 'heavy-handed 19th century regulations' that are 'inconceivable' as well as illegal. ... [U]nless something unexpected happens, the fight over Net neutrality will shift a few blocks down Independence Avenue from the FCC to Capitol Hill. (In an editorial Monday, The Washington Post called for just that.)"
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
we came of age during the wild west days of the internet. those days are over... isp's, the mpaa, the riaa, and the corporate powers that be all have a VERY vested interest in being able to control who has access when, as they do with all other forms of entertainment and information distribution on a large scale. money talks, which means an open source community in favor of creativity, innovation, and freedom of expression will lose in Washington. net neutrality is a great idea in the same vein as reasonable copyright laws, but when it comes down to brass tacks money wins over reason, which sucks, but at this point in America we should be used to it. i apologize for the sweeping generalizations but it's sad, and at this point between nafta, gatt, the dmca, patriot act, etc, how are we even surprised by this any more, money trumps the actual best interest of the american people every day of the week and reasonable logical long term solutions will be thrown under the bus in favor of the whims of a company who donates heavily to some career politician's reelection fund.... and THANKFULLY /sarcasm/ the supreme court recently removed those pesky donation limits so corporate persons can feel free to be even more open about what politicians the purchase... our country is in a sad state because of shit like this. net neutrality deserved a fair chance and the internet was the best, last refuge for free expression, but when you have a senile senator heading the committee on it explaining it as a series of tubes, not a dump truck, referring to email as "an internet" only to later be run out of town on corruption charges what the hell do you expect... the only thing i can think to say is thank you to the FCC for their to date entirely reasonable stance on the internet. it is the one thing that the regulate that they honestly got right from the get go, and its sad to see that era end thanks to lobbyists who have more money to spend pulling wool over the eyes of idiots than you or i do... that said please please please keep fighting the good fight EFF, i'll continue to donate when i can... and i have written my congressman about this, whatever difference that makes, all i have is but one vote to give, which doesn't buy ad time come reelection season...
You'd prefer an Internet regulated by Time-Warner and Disney?