Current legislation in both houses of Congress threatens to change the Internet as we know it.
The House Commerce Committee approved the COPE bill 42-12 after voting down an amendment by Democrat Ed Markey of Massachusetts to guarantee net neutrality - the principle that net users should be able to access any web content they want, post their own content, and use any applications they chose without restrictions or limitations imposed by their internet service providers. The Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancements Act now awaits action on the house floor where it faces little opposition.
Subsequently, Markey filed a bill of his own H. R. 5273, known as the Network Neutrality Act, which would open broadband networks and innovation, foster electronic commerce and safeguard consumer access to online content and services. That bill has been referred to the House Commerce Committee which had defeated his amendment to the COPE bill.
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, has introduced a massive, 135-page bill called the Communications, Consumer Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006.
The COPE act, about to be considered by the full house, would limit FCC authority to prevent abuses of market power by the few broadband ISP's in control of the "last mile." The Stevens bill goes even further. It would eliminate it altogether.
The House strips the FCC of any power to create net neutrality rules, limiting it to enforcing its Broadband Policy Statement by case-by-case complaints. The Stevens Bill removes the ability of the FCC to even adjudicate complaints about violations of the four principles.
The four principles of broadband policy are:
Consumers should be able to:
- Access all legal content,
- Use all legal applications and services of their choice,
- Attach any device to the network that won't harm the network, and
- Enjoy competition.
The Miami Herald says companies such as Verizon and Comcast have already announced plans to create a two-tiered Internet, where some websites and services would travel up the 'fast lane' - for a fee, of course - and the rest of the web would be relegated to the "slow lane"
"Universality is essential to the web," says its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. "It loses its power if there are certain types of things to which you can't link."
Currently internet providers do not voluntarily censor the web as it enters your home. This levels the playing field between the tiniest blog and the most popular website.
It is up to us - computer people - to keep it that way. It is a vital matter to us but has not been getting any media attention. One way to get around that is to let our Senators in Washington know where we stand. I have done so and hope we can generate a wellspring of attention by generating a torrent of emails telling of our desire for continued Internet Neutrality. You can find your Senator's email address at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html.
The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to consider the bill June 8.
Members of the committee:
Ted Stevens - Alaska
John McCain - Arizona
Conrad Burns - Montana
Trent Lott - Mississippi
Kay Bailey Hutchison - Texas
Olympia Snowe - Maine
Gordon Smith - Oregon
John Ensign - Nevada
George Allen - Virginia
John Sununu - New Hampshire
Jim DeMint - South Carolina
Daniel K. Inouye - Hawaii
John D. Rockefeller IV - West Virginia
John F. Kerry - Massachusetts
Byron L. Dorgan - North Dakota
Barbara Boxer - California
Bill Nelson - Florida
Maria Cantwell - Washington
Frank Lautenberg - New Jersey
E. Benjamin Nelson - Nebraska
Mark Pryor - Arkansas
David Vitter - Louisiana
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There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Date Revised: 19 May 2006
