Selling The Internet To The Highest Campaign Donors

From a recent, frightening article that every internet user should be aware of:

Congress is going to hand the operation of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Democrats are helping. It’s a shame.

Don’t look now, but the House Commerce Committee next Wednesday is likely to vote to turn control of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and what’s left of the telecommunications industry. It will be one of those stories the MSM writes about as “little noticed” because they haven’t covered it. (Click here to read the rest of the article…)

Like many people, I feel like this bill would be more than just “turning over control” of the internet to companies like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast. It would be the end to any and all internet Democracy that has existed up until now. It’s turning web content into a service only a few can afford to provide, where the little guy is not only crushed, but is not even able to start up.

If we aren’t careful about things like this, in 5 years the internet won’t be a public medium. You’ll pay for “Comcast internet” or “Verizon internet,” each of which will offer you access to a limited number of sites under contract with Comcast. For example, they’d slow down your connection to Yahoo, if Yahoo didn’t pay them a “high speed premium”.

If you don’t think this threat is real, check out this site for more detailed information about it. From the site:

The telephone and cable companies are filling up congressional campaign coffers and hiring high-priced lobbyists. They’ve set up “Astroturf” groups like “Hands Off the Internet” to confuse the issue and give the appearance of grassroots support.

Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The primary bill in the House is called the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006″ and is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), Rep Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).

The current version of the COPE Act includes watered-down net neutrality provisions that are essentially meaningless. An amendment offered in a key subcommittee by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real net neutrality requirements, was defeated after intense industry lobbying against it.

But it’s not too late yet. A full committee vote on the measure — and another opportunity to save the Internet — could happen as soon as April 26.

The Senate is moving more deliberately on the issue. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, which would ensure net neutrality. And Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) are expected to introduce bipartisan amendment supporting net neutrality when the Senate takes up its own rewrite of the Telecommunications Act later this year.

But neither chamber will support the free and open Internet without widespread public pressure. To keep the Internet free and open, Congress needs to hear from millions of Americans right now.

Ever since the development of paper and the printing press, corporations have been able to make tons of money from mass communication. Now with the internet, data is cheaply stored and cheaply moved around. Huge corporations, from music and movie studios to companies like AT&T and Comcast feel that they’ve lost control of communication and aren’t making the kind of money off of it that they supposedly ‘deserve.’ So they’re trying to take it back, and they have the support of our elected leaders. Instead of merely being a service provider, they will be a censor that can retake all that lost revenue by having total control.

This is nothing but selling the heart and soul of American Democracy in order to allow corporate powers to cash in on the movement of information. It’s disgusting and it’s wrong. Everyday corporate powers and congressmen sponsored by these nuts chip at the foundation stones of Democracy to fill their coffers with cash to pay their spin doctors.

Now maybe I’m falling into a big foolish overreaction here and I’m just being another doom-sayer, but this kind of crap has been happening behind our backs for far too long. Guys and girls, it’s never too late to take to the streets.