Driving down the road last night (Rt. 50 in Virginia), listening to the radio, I heard a report on the net neutrality issue that
Dawn Holian has been writing about here. It was the usual on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand news report --
this one on NPR -- but I was struck by the example a cable spokesperson used to defend the proposal to have some pay high dollar rates for preferred, high speed access while others who can't pay are left in the slow lanes. Or some telecom will give priority to its own content while slowing down their competitors' content.
So, Dan Brenner, VP with the National Cable Television Association, says what if a grandmother in a nursing home wants to get broadband delivery of a live video of her grandchild's wedding, some company could guarantee high speed delivery to the nursing home while it's taking place. I'm sure that's
exactly what the cables have in mind when they're thinking of making money by selling privileged internet access to the highest bidder -- more likely, they're thinking sports, movies, or even porn.
As internet pioneer Vint Cerf said in the same piece, this is like the controlled mass media of the past, where only selected companies have access to the megaphone.
Join our campaign to keep the internet fair and open.
The
Chicago Sun-Times has the scoop today on Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), one of the co-sponsors of the atrocious
COPE bill. Seems Mr. Rush received $1 million in grants from AT&T/SBC, one of the nation's largest telephone companies, for a community center he founded. Telephone companies like AT&T would be the primary beneficiaries of this bill.
An Englewood community center founded by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a key player on telecommunications legislation, received a $1 million grant from the charitable arm of SBC/AT&T, one of the nation's largest phone companies.
The chief of a congressional watchdog group says Rush's ongoing association with the Rebirth of Englewood Community Development Corporation and his role in shaping telecommunications law as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee is a conflict of interest. Using charitable giving as a backdoor way to curry favor with lawmakers is coming under increasing scrutiny, figuring in controversies associated with former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), who was forced to temporarily step aside as the ranking Democrat on the Ethics panel.
On Wednesday, the energy and commerce panel on which Rush sits is set to vote on a controversial rewrite of telecommunications law co-sponsored by Rush and backed by major phone companies eager to compete with cable television companies.
Click to read more.Don't let AT&T buy special favors from lawmakers.
Call or
email your member of Congress today and tell them to vote NO on COPE.
On Wednesday, the
House Commerce Committee will vote on the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act ("COPE"). This absurdly-named bill only 'promotes' and 'enhances' opportunities for the cable, phone and media interests that have been been pushing Congress for new special benefits.
Your calls to members of the House Commerce Committee are needed before the vote on Wednesday afternoon. You can find a list of
Commerce members here, or the name of your Representative
here. Please urge your member of Congress to
vote NO on COPE.
The
COPE bill would:
Place control of the Internet in the hands of few powerful corporations;
Vastly increase special interest monopoly power;
End consumer protections against abuses by cable companies;
Allow cable and phone companies to raise the prices in poor neighborhoods, while giving special deals to the affluent;
Expand the "digital divide" that puts the poor, racial and ethnic minorities and rural families at a disadvantage; and
Stifle innovation and economic growth, because it will be too costly for any new Googles or eBays to draw customers to their websites.
Please make a call today, and then let us know how it went by leaving a comment below. Thanks.
The much talked-about 2006 telecom reform bill is here. And unfortunately it's bad news for consumers and for democracy.
The absurdly named
COPE Act (Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement) gets a lot wrong. Its primary aim is to create national franchising for cable providers (
click here for an explanation of what that means), but fails to protect consumers - particularly those in rural areas -- by not including a requirement for new cable providers to offer their services to everyone in the community. The bill also unfairly strips states and localities of their consumer protection enforcement powers, despite their excellent track record in this area.
And perhaps worst of all, the COPE bill jeopardizes the free and open nature of the Internet. It effectively binds the hands of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), leaving Internet providers free to violate
net neutrality principles in pursuit of greater profits. That could spell the end to innovation that has brought us Google, MySpace, eBay, Amazon and so many other sites and web-based services.
So far the major battles over the COPE bill have been fought between the cable industry and the telephone industry. The public hasn't had a seat at the table. It's time Congress heard from us.
Send a message now at
http://www.commoncause.org/StopCOPE 
Common Blog
