Yesterday was the House Commerce Committee vote on the COPE Act - the telecom reform bill packed with special-interest favors to the industry.  The bad news is that it was passed by the committee, and will now move the floor of the House.  We expect it to come to a vote in the full House sometime in May.

The good news is that your activism made a difference.  After receiving thousands of phone calls from citizens like you who are concerned about Internet freedom, several members of Congress changed their position on net neutrality and voted yesterday to protect the Internet from the greedy telecoms who want to privatize it.  

Let's keep the pressure on.  We still have another chance to stop this bad bill when it comes to the floor of the House in the next few weeks.  Educate your friends and family about this issue.  If you have a blog, write about net neutrality.  We need a major grassroots uprising to counter the millions of dollars the telecom giants are spending on lobbying.  

Tell Congress 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.

Our "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" report, which exposed some of the telecom industry's most insidious front groups, is getting a lot of attention in the press. The Wall Street Journal published a major article about the study last week and it was featured on other media outlets such as the radio & TV program Democracy Now and in the San Antonio Express News.

Telecom industry Astroturf is continuing to crop up all over the country. Many of you let us know about TV4Us, a new front group being financed by AT&T. On Thursday, a brand new group calling itself the Video Access Alliance (VAA) testified before the House Telecommunications Subcommittee. Interestingly, the group has the same mailing address as NetCommunications, a corporate public relations firm. (click on these links to see for yourself: Video Access Alliance's address listed on the House Commerce Committee's website, and NetCommunications' address on its Contact Us page). Under questioning from Rep. Ed Markey, VAA Chair Julia Johnson admitted that the consulting firm that pays her salary receives compensation from the telephone companies. [Thank you to the eagle-eyed Michael Eisenmenger at Manhattan Neighborhood Network for the scoop.]

Have you heard of any other suspicious groups? Seen any telecom ads in your newspaper or on local TV? Let us know about it.