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Rock the Net

By Dawn Holian Iype
Posted on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 07:57:10 AM EST

This might be the best net neutrality idea I've heard this year.

Rock the Net is a new coalition of musicians who support Internet freedom. REM, OK Go, The Donnas, and Death Cab for Cutie are just a few of the bands that have signed on so far. Check out the website for a list of upcoming shows, and support these artists who are fighting to keep the Internet free and open. If, like me, you're still waiting for a show to be scheduled in your area, you can always send a message to your representatives in Congress.


Tags: Media and Democracy, net neutrality (all tags)


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Rock the Net :: 3 Comments

Good bands, but...

Some of my favorite bands are going to be playing Rock the Net, but as I work on net neutrality issues with www.handsoff.org, I'd be curious to find out how many of them really understand the issues surrounding the so-called "net neutrality."  It seems their talents could be better used addressing an issue that actually exists, not one based on theoretic scare scenarios.

by HandsOff on Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 05:05:50 PM EST


re: Good bands

What are you saying? That these are just a bunch of dumb musicians who have been "tricked" into supporting net neutrality? Let's give them more credit than that. I'd bet that bands like OK Go understand exactly what's at stake if we lose the principles of freedom and openness that have made the Internet great -- and that helped make their group hugely popular.

by Dawn Holian Iype on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 10:21:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]


Not dumb, just misinformed

I don't think that any of these musicians are dumb -- as I said, they're some of my favorite bands.  I just think that they, like many other people, have been misinformed about the issues and real dangers surrounding so-called network neutrality.  Tim Lee at the Technology Liberation Front makes a great point on the matter:

So to buy the artists' fears, you not only have to believe that the telcos will succeed in radically transforming the Internet at the logical layer, but you also have to believe that they'll be able to twist the arms of companies like Google that control the content layer into changing their sites to lock out local artists. Not only does it seem exceedingly unlikely that they'd be able to do that, but it's not even clear why they'd want to. If News Corp is paying the appropriate bribe to give MySpace preferential access, why would Verizon care what kind of content MySpace is making available?

You can read his entire post here.

by HandsOff on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 02:50:29 PM EST


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