Y'all,
As far as I can tell, this is an attempt to establish a new "first-class
seating" tier of service to the internet. As it is now, everyone pays
their Internet Service Provider (ISP) a monthly fee for your connection...
be it dial-up, DSL or cable speeds. The ISPs pay some of what you pay the
companies who run the big transmission networks that carry the internet
signals. But the network companies need to keep adding capacity to keep up
with demand and they are now getting greedy and feel that they should get
more money than they do now. So, they want to take the best servers and
fiber-optic channels in their networks and reserve them for customers who
will pay an additional surcharge to use these premium connections -- a
surcharge significantly higher than the "average" internet user is likely
to be willing or able to pay. Meaning rich folk and big business as
opposed to the rest of us will be able to pay more to get the best
internet service. It wouldn't be such a bad idea if they were talking
about creating completely new networks dedicated to this new service --
but what they want to do is strip out the best connections in the
*existing* internet that we ALL use right now and reserve them for the
first-class passengers only. This is kind of like taking a lane on a
freeway or interstate highway that has been paid for by the taxpayers and
deciding to make it a "carpool-only" lane, prohibiting everyone else from
driving on it. Only this won't be a public-interest conservation-use like
a carpool lane is supposed to be. In this case, it will simply be taking
the best connections away from the rest of use and making a "can you
afford to drive in the fast lane?" service.
It's extending exclusivity and class-structure to the internet, which was
supposed to be the "great public commons" of the electronic age. Now, they
want to put a fence around the best land on the commons and exclude most
of us from walking on it. Simply so they can make more money. I oppose
this idea, but it will almost certainly pass unless a whole bunch of
people write their congress-critters. A good place to start is:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
-- JR
- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 10:16
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Congress is about to damage the freedom of the
internet. WRITE NOW!
> Oh no! I hope someone out there who understands what
> this will mean to those of us who sell on ebay (and on
> other internet sites) will post an explanation. All I
> know for sure is that generally speaking when money
> changes hands, the government likes to be right there
> in between to take its cut. I hope this news is not as
> bad as it sounds.
> Diana
> Looking forward to reading what the rest of you might
> know about this
>
> --- Alan Adler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Mopos - I do not think I've heard anything on this
> > on our forum. But I
> > believe Congress is about to vote on screwing up the
> > Internet and the
> > way we do business utilizing it. Check it out.
> > What do ya'll think?
> > Is it as bad as it seems?
> >
> > Alan Adler
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