New Net Neutrality Bill in Congress--H.R. 5994

[kaygore]

Two House of Representatives members, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) have unveiled a new Net neutrality bill, the Internet Freedom and Non-discrimination Act. This latest piece of Net neutrality legislation follows a similar bill the two legislators put forward in 2006. That one failed, but Net neutrality has since come back into the spotlight as a result of Comcast's traffic-shaping controversy. The new bill puts service providers in the line of fire for anti-trust enforcement action if they fail to operate their network in a reasonable and non-discriminatory manner, treating all content and traffic the same, as well as interconnecting with other service providers in a similar manner.

H.R. 5994, the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008," is an attempt to establish an antitrust remedy for anticompetitive and discriminatory practices by broadband service providers.

http://www.freepress.net/node/39684

We need to get out the support for this bill!!!!

[Elspeth]

1. K & R

VERY IMPORTANT POST!

[Auggie]

2. K&R

[crimsonblue]

3. What people fail to recognize..

is that the Telcos are immune from prosecution for any communication that takes place over their pipelines. This was done many years ago to prevent Telcos from being involved in wire fraud and libel cases. The immunity is contigent on the Telcos NOT filtering any of the communications that go through their pipelines. So by filtering and restricting traffic, the Telcos have already opened themselves up to lawsuits. They have capitulated to the RIAA instead of telling them to fuck off. The telcos need to go down in a flaming ball of glory.

[Eric J in MN]

5. YouTube takes down some content on its own initiative,

...but they still say that they're immune from lawsuits for visitors posting copyrighted material, as long as they remove the copyrighted material when the owner complains.

Viacom argues that YouTube is legally-obligated to screen each video before it's posted.

I agree with YouTube.

[crimsonblue]

6. their own filtering opens them up to consumer lawsuits..

They are not obligated to remove any material unless asked by the copyright holder. However, Viacom is intent on bringing their lawsuit against Google (owner of Youtube) to the courts. They are probably hoping to get to the SC and get a favorable ruling, which in kind would have the effect of making every person that has ever surfed the net legally liable for any content they have seen. Awesome!

[Eric J in MN]

4. kick

kick

[Quantess]

7. Early morning kick.

[Stuart G]

8. K and R...strange about his thread because..

In the long run, this one affects Democratic Underground as much as any. Guess what might go if we lose this freedom? Hard to know..but I don't suspect that the major telecommunication companies like us very much. I wonder why? Think it over.

[Quantess]

9. True.

Tuesday morning kick.