Go Here NOW! Tell all Reps to keep the internet NEUTRAL!

[The Doctor.]

{cross-posted in GD politics)

http://www.savetheinternet.com/=map

Follow this link to the map of each Congressman that is working on this issue TODAY. Click on the yellow dots(not voted yet) to get the name and phone number of the Reps that are deciding on the issue of net neutrality.

Corporations cannot be given such control over our internet!

I cannot stress how important this issue is... for more info, go here;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/congress-casting-vote-on-_b_19793.html

It doesn't matter whether they are your Representative or not, call them anyway and tell who ever you speak with that the Rep MUST keep the internet neutral!

Let them know that we are ALL watching them and that when their constituents feel the crunch of the corporations taking big bites out of their wallets and their access.... We will make CERTAIN those constituents KNOW WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE!

I have two down already and 20+ to go.

NOW GET ON IT!!!

[IndyOp]

1. This is EXCELLENT !!

I am off to walk dogs and then will start calling 'round the country!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[cry baby]

2. terrific link! I'll start calling now. K & R

[dmr]

3. Kick

:kick:

[Mythsaje]

4. I signed the petition last week

Yesterday I sent a note to the CEOs of the various corps involved, and today I posted a link to several author and reader e-mail groups, reaching somewhere around 6000 people in one fell swoop. These are people with a vested interest in keeping the web the way it is. Most of them are probably not all that political, but this is something that could activate them.

I also sent a note of thanks to Alyssa Milano, who's blog I used as a reference for these folks. It was a nice non-partisan starting point that won't alienate some of the RW types (yes, there are, unfortunately, RWers among the romance and fantasy writers I know--I blame brain-damage of unknown origin).

My lists grew very quiet all of a sudden. I hope that means they're reaching out and touching someone, if you know what I mean.

:D

I'd call the reps myself, but I don't do telephones unless someone has a metaphorical gun to my head.

[low_phreaq]

5. Committee is meeting on this RIGHT NOW!

As of the time I called, they had been meeting on this for several hours already. Here is a link to the schedule entry:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Markups/04262006markup1848.htm

There is a link for a live webcast there also.

If I read this correctly, they are meeting to markup a print of the COPE Act, which has apparently not yet been assigned an H.R. number.

I think one of the provisions of the COPE Act waters down the network neutrality provisions in the Telecommunications Act. So we are telling them to preserve network neutrality. If I am off on this, somebody please correct me.

Again, they are meeting on this NOW!

[NAO]

6. Here's what I wrote my reps. Why it's non-partisan, critical to democracy

Here is the letter I sent to my reps:

Please act immediately to save the Internet by supporting Network Neutrality.

Television has become the means whereby those with monetary power can shape public perception and policy to suit their own selfish ends, which are often opposed to the common good of US Citizens and the entire world.

The Internet is a revolutionary medium whereby anyone can contribute to the political, moral, philosophical, and cultural dialogue regardless of their economic power. It is the medium by which true democracy and public participation – which were severely degraded by the era of television - may be restored.

It would be tragic to allow large powerful corporations to use their wealth to monopolize and control this fantastic new medium of democracy and turn it into another tool of propaganda of the powerful in the way that happened to television.

Please act to save Save Network Neutrality. This is very likely the single most important item on the American Political Agenda right now. It will determine the participation level of all citizens from all parties on all future issues. The loss of Network Neutrality would be a deadly blow to true democracy.

Sincerely,

*********
*********
*********

*********

[4_TN_TITANS]

7. Done... Bart Gordon is my rep

and he hasn't voted yet. He shocked me on the Bankruptcy Bill, but that's the only suprise in a long while. Dems can count on him 99% of the time. He's excellent about replying with on-topic replies, unlike Frist and Alexander.

[lonestarnot]

8. kick!!

[DFLer4edu]

9. A link to save the internet should be put on the front page of DU

This story has got to get out there. On one is talking about it. Is there anyone at the DU who knows enough about the issue to write an article about it? The message has got to get out there that if this bill passes we can most likely kiss the DU goodbye.

[OhioNerd]

10. As a Network Engineer, I'm afraid I have to throw some cold water on this.

As a Network Engineer, I'm afraid I have to throw some cold water on this. I've been seeing these "They're going to ruin the Internet" scares on a recurring basis for YEARS now.

Let me reassure you right up front. There are a LOT of people who want to control the internet, all the way up to and including major governments. China for instance. Even with the cooperation of Microsoft & Google they can't do it, and neither can anyone else.

There are two things you can do to the internet. You can make parts of it annoying to use for a limited amount of time, or you can destroy it altogether. The former is common, the latter is only possible in theory, not in the real world.

I know it's fun to get excited about the Enemy at the Gate, but I promise you... nobody is going to fuck up the internet.







In regards to the specific complaint in web page, it's worth a closer look if nly for educational purposes.




*** In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

Yeah, they weren't suppose to be doing that. Which is why the FCC told them to knock that shit off and fined them $15,000. -- http://informationweek.smallbizpipeline.com/60405214




*** In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute.

That's was pretty dicky. Fortunately, they didn't get away with it eaither. -- http://www.techliberation.com/archives/036617.php




*** Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers who want to use a competing Internet telephone service.

Turns out that this was actually a sales pitch. Shaw wanted $10 extra, knew they couldn't charge it and tried to get the dumber customers to give them the $10 anyway. -- http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/060307/vonage_shaw_voip_tax.html




*** In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

There is so much irony, and FUNNY irony in this one that you simply have to see it for yourself. Intricate layers of silliness. -- http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1932763,00.asp

[The Doctor.]

11. So you're saying internet content

cannot be controlled?

[OhioNerd]

12. I'm not going to participate in F.U.D.

I'm not going to participate in F.U.D.

The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

[The Doctor.]

13. Sorry.... neophyte here....

What is "F.U.D."?

I understand quite thematically that the internet already has a kind of 'cognizance' and life of it's own. But as that facility is degraded, taking into account the acuity of the average user, we can see that the content control exhibited in the MSM will eventually supplant the free-expression of the internet.

[OhioNerd]

14. FUD = Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt.

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt. It's an acronum left over from an old IBM sales strategy.

The internet isn't thematic. It has no life and no cognizance. It doesn't even have any content. It's nothing more than a collection of networks. What it does have is Routers. Routers are, at their most basic, electronic switches that make decisions about how to route packets of data based upon instructions given to them by people like me.

When one pathway goes down, the Router looks at it's list of options and sends the data down the next pathway on the list. If it's got noplace to send the data, it tells the router that sent IT the data in the first place that it has no routes to get anywhere and the router is removed from the routing tables of other routers.

Think of a network of streets in a large city and consider that the internet. Consider the content on the internet as taxicabs moving through the streets. If a street or even several streets are closed, the cabs will take other streets. As long as even ONE pathway is open, the taxicabs will get through. The only way to stop the taxicabs is to destroy ALL the streets.


The upshot of all this is that you cannot control the internet. It's far too distributed. There are always pathways open for the taxicabs. If you want to put 72 nukes into geosynchronous orbit covering the whole planet and created a global electromagnetic pulse that destroys the entire internet simultanously, then you could stop the flow of information on the part of the internet that is copper. The part that is optical fiber goes on. That's oversimplified of course, but it gets the idea across. The basic reason why nobody can control the internet is because it's too bloody large and it's operation too simple.

[The Doctor.]

15. I hope you're right.

Thanks for the illustration. I get what you're saying, but I find it hard to believe that my cable provider can't block whatever they want to, or that an ISP can't assign levels of priority to various things.