Bloggers Unite! (MoveOn petition to preserve Net Neutrality)
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Hiya folks, just wanted to let you know about some political/lobbying by large telecom companies that threatens not only the blogosphere, but the internet as we know it... I am including some information below for those who are interested.
Basically, the issue boils down to this: Large telecom companies are trying to turn internet use into a revenue stream for themselves by limiting access to bandwidth to those who pay...think "cable company" and you will get my drift. In any event, to familiarize yourself with this topic, I have included some links below, so you can find out more about the subject without my listing it all here.
If anyone is interested in contacting their congress person, don't do it by email, take the time to make a quick call, as that is much more meaningful to them. They are considering the Markey amendment this week.
-w
Info from MoveOn:
You can help protect Internet freedom by taking 3 actions in the blogosphere today. Sign up here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=5
Your Representative will vote on a key Internet freedom bill this week in committee—and they should support the "Markey Amendment" protecting Net Neutrality.
Here are the 3 actions you can take to draw attention to this issue, all located through the link above:
1) Pur our handy "Save The Internet" coalition logo on your blog.
2) Join our SavetheInternet.com blogger team—get breaking news and/or sign our coalition blogroll.
3) Post on your blog today about this issue—letting people know about this week's vote and urging them to sign MoveOn's petition and call Congress. Background facts and lots of fun links are located on our blogger sign-up page. Please include a link to our petition—everyone who signs will get updates on what they can do to keep the heat on Congress.
Can you sign up to take these 3 steps on the blogosphere today?
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=4
Included in this link is a comment box where you can share your ideas on how thousands of MoveOn blog owners and blog users can work together to maximize our effectiveness in the blogosphere. Your advice will truly be the first draft of MoveOn blogosphere history.
Thanks for all you do, and for sharing your advice on how we can maximize this exciting new blogger project. -
Maybe this is good what moveon.org is doing, but they are personally something I'd rather not be affiliated with whatsoever.
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I know, I read on your blog that you are a republican. Pity ;-)
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I'm conservative, but don't tell anyone :)
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If it makes you feel any better, they've even partnered up with the gun nuts on this one.
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ok last comment.
I'm not for gun nuts either. I like my governments small, my hot dogs plain, and my women beefy. -
I'm a lefty, and I agree with you...you might wanna check the small government thing with the reality of what is happening under republican leadership however ;-)
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Oh god, MoveOn is behind it?
It's doomed to failure :(
(Edit: Wendy, you might want to change the URLs in your first post with more generic ones. It logs me in as you when I click them at the moment.) -
great! ...do you know how to fix that? I copied and pasted some of that from my email.
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Use these:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=5
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=4 -
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?id=7402-3458696
I think that's what you want..
Or Dan's.. which are far simpler. -
You guys are geniuses! Thanks ;-)
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Doctor Robert:
I disagree with many MoveOn positions, myself, but that's no reason not to support a worthy cause.
For the record, I like my governments small, too -- but the current republican administration has been dramatically expanding the scope of federal government, betraying the trust of true republicans.
Not that the democrats are doing any better -- it doesn't make sense to just toe the party line, when the parties are all over the map on the issues. What makes sense is to stand up on particular issues, and let your representatives know where you stand.
- Eric -
please I don't want to get political.
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Then what are you doing in this thread? ;)
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Hiding from the fighting going on next door.
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Ah, we'll crash your party! Or I would, but I'm not that interested in American politics. That's a lie. But this doesn't interest me.
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I'm incredibly political yet have a hard time getting wound up about this one to be honest. Probably because it doesn't directly affect me, and even if it did, I think groups like MoveOn are making it seem much worse than it would potentially be.
I'm about as leftie as one can get and am all for freedom of speech, but the idea of ISPs slowing down connections to certain sites just seems borderline absurd to me. -
ok lets try this again.
dilvie, all I said was I wasn't interested in this b/c of MoveOn. I didn't know I was going to open a can of worms.
It's real hard to convey any sort of tone on msg bds. -
It's OK Dr. Robert. I know MoveOn is a highly charged PAC and they aren't everyone's cup of tea. However, even if you don't sign on to this effort, folks should keep their eyes open for news about this topic.
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"Eddie"
1. At practical level it means censorship. (Company can decide, hey that or this side doesn't need to get delivered. And we know hwo AT&T and Verizone have stand up to citizens right vs. government intrusion. So next thing you psot anything about the administration, it won't be weird "???" or ".mil" or anything from european city with signal inteligence headquarters. It'll be your site dissapear from the net, not getting delivered.)
2. VOIP. This is the actual phone compny target. VOIP is a threat to their lucrative cellphone business.
there is a lengthy discussion here. (To our rightwing friends. This site is not your type.)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/24/201526/948 -
# In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.
# In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute.
# Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers who want to use a competing Internet telephone service.
# In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme. -
werd wendy. werd.
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Let's put it in term that everybody here might easily accept...
'Next RIAA letter, won't be asking ISP to clean up your server. It'll be asking your side be declared your site is misusing the network and detrimental to the network and commerce.'
Your site is posting mp3 and clogging up certain network section? off you go.
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Thanks for the additional info Squashed!
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I understand the theory behind it and that it can result in censorship, and believe me, if there was the slightest bit of evidence that this was happening, I'd be right in there on the good fight even if I'm not American.
I just don't see it actually happening in reality. I don't know, I know I haven't read enough about all of this, largely because I can't seem to find a reasoned article about it all. Even crazy liberal me doesn't count MoveOn or Kos as anything resembling a reliable news source.
I also think there's a ton more important issues out there than this. Maybe I'd be getting more worked up about it if I was American or something.
(Edit: There's a certain irony about all this too. A few years ago UK ISPs started censorsing child porn and related type sites from the internet. At the time I was accused of all sorts for arguing against that. "First they came for the Jews" and all that) -
"Eddie
I just don't see it actually happening in reality. "
They kill people, invade a country, lie about it, spy on citizens, torture, wreck the budget, and manipulate the media.
why is passing law like that is improbable?
I help you find the reading. You want me to keep posting real world example in regard to internet vs. current administration? How many posts do you want? -
It's not the passing of the law that's impossible. I have no doubt that it would go through in a second if enough were behind it.
It's the implementation of it that I'm more sceptical about. I just don't see a massive surge of websites being removed from the internet as soon as this thing goes through.
To put it another way, as far as I'm aware, the US is the only country with this whole net neutrality concept. It's not one that exists in other countries, and certainly doesn't here in the UK. That doesn't mean my website falls off the internet the second I write something negative about Blair. Other than the aforementioned child porn example, I can't think of any such things being implemented here.
I'm on your side in all of this, honesty. I agree with with your concerns and if I was in the US I'd probably be "doing my bit" and pushing the issue too. I just think that, particularly in the UK, there are far bigger civil liberties issues (the NIR, the 'Abolition of Parliament' act etc) that I just can't get worked up about this at the moment. I commend your stance on it though, I really do. -
I just heard a piece about this on NPR. It was a good segment, and really helped to explain this issue's importance.
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This isn't about websites "falling off the internet" -- it's about ISPs picking and choosing which websites and services their customers get to use, and it actually happens in the real world quite a bit more than you'd think. The pro net-neutrality laws being introduced are designed to make that sort of behavior illegal -- and I think it's a great idea. I certainly don't want Comcast blocking me from accessing competitor websites -- or anything else they feel like.
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eg. TimeWarner owns a huge chunk of commercial broadband in major metropolitan areas. They also happens to be one of the big 6 and dear friends of RIAA.
the law will give legitimacy to that denying equal service to all sites. All the big corporations have to do is find some excuse within the vague language.
so ... -
I agree that it's a massively flawed and really shitty law. I also really hope that it doesn't go through.
I just don't understand why it's such a big deal for the US. As I said earlier, you're the only country with net neutrality laws. Why do you believe all this is going to happen the second these laws aren't there when it hasn't in any other western country? -
It's big deal precisely because how obscure and non existence the public outcry is despite the huge harm done on flow of information.
Freedom or what not is only, goes as far as it doesn't bother the big money.
for eg. does the phone company complain about P2P or downloaidng movies? Which eat up MUCH MUCh more bandwith than a VOIP, yet they are screaming their head off about VOIP is destroying their network load. ANd how they need law to protect them from this sort of damage.
BS I say. It's because VOIP will eat up their overpriced wireless service customer. It's that simple. -
Also (believe me, I wanted to stick to issues that are of interest to the mp3 bloggers here, but here goes...) this whole effort is a lot more sinister at its heart in terms of limiting information.
Information moves at light speed on the internet, and more and more people are logging on and finding that they can get reliable information about this issues they care about faster from sources they trust. There are plenty of people who are threatened by such access to information, which is why people who prefer things to remain secret take issue with the internet, particularly political blogs.
In fact, there have been some stories out there (my source on this is Talking Points Memo) that the military has been blocking access to progressive blogs (Kos, TPM, Eschaton) for servicemen and women, but not rightwing blogs, even the nutty, out-to-lunch stuff like Free Republic and Little Green Footballs.
(you can read about this here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/25/03133/7597)
This obviously goes beyond mp3 blogging and into the heart of the first amendment. Anything that threatens freedom of speech/assembly in this country is something I feel VERY strongly about.
(stepping down from soapbox now)...back to the music! -
Well I haven't got a great deal to add beyond what I've already said, but I do support the position of you guys and have a hell of a lot of respect for anyone who stands up for things like this, so keep it up.
On a vaguely connected note, when did liberal become a dirty word even for the left? -
Take this for what it's worth -- I read it a few months ago and am recalling it from the back of my mind.
Google has been buying up thousands of miles of cable for the last year or so and has been establishing server farms in major cities (specifically, New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle), and that soon enough they'll be offering their own 'internet service', so to speak WITH Amazon (as Amazon is so huge). -
Simply put, Internet-tiering will result in this:
Using your fast home cable connection you want to do an internet search:
- A search at Google.com takes 5 seconds. Images load slowly, browsing the pages of results is even slower.
- A search at MSN.com returns immediately, everything comes up instantly as you go onto page 2, 3.. etc.
This would be happening simply because MSN paid off your ISP to use the "preferred Internet channel" resulting in faster performance.
Among other things, it's anti-competitive - surely we want to use the search engine (or other service) that is actually the best, not one that sucks but is backed by the biggest bag of cash. -
If you want to be really pessimistic about where this kind of stuff leads, all you need to do is look at the way companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, etc. have catered to China and their censorship policies, even helping (in the case of Yahoo) to get someone arrested. The technology exists. Try googling "Tienimen Square" or "Fulong Gong" in Beijing and the police will beat a pathway to your door.
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believe it or not:
i was going to comment "fuck tha police" but wanted to do it in chinese. i decided to try and find a translator online that could give me "fuck tha police" in chinese so i could post it here...in the meantime i was 95% of the way through a long post for my site, but i was doing the writing in blogger's create post thing instead of offline (i know, i know)...well, my search ended up crashing my browser (safari) and i lost my post.
i'm thinking that it was just the chinese police staying one step ahead of me.
(the post i'm refering to - http://earfarm.blogspot.com/2006/04/overlooked-albums-from-90s-29.html) -
argh I feel for you Matt. I've learnt my lesson now I think. Save after every sentence. Copy entire post every so often into notepad. Take note rookies. (I wouldn't consider myself a rookie no more!)
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Seriously, think of calling your congress rep (I will help you if you send me an email to wendy@toolshed.biz) If you guys need any more information, check this:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29242
sad. -
also, for those of you freaked out by politics and partisanship...this isn't about dem v rep. Check it out!
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I'm getting ready to put that button on mi blog. Looks cool.
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thanks jeff!
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I also posted a myspace bulletin about it.
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Thanks again Jeff! FYI...if this thread dies, I will post it up again...it's that IMPORTANT.
Next time, I will include reps and phone numbers so people can call in to their congressmen.
I will also include a rough script if anyone feels they can't talk to the folks who take the calls. It should be brief and to the point (they don't really care about anything other than yes or no from constituents).
People annoyed by politics can ignore this thread (at their own peril ;-) -
I checked, and it looks as though my congressman is a tool of the man.
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Well, if you call (look for the local number as opposed to the DC number), just say you are a constituent from (x-city) and you are calling in about Net Neutrality. Mention that you are a blogger and are concerned that he didn't support the Markey Amendment and that you will be watching his vote in the future and hope he will support Net Neutrality.
Keep it simple. They keep a tally (no details) and pass it on to the rep.
Glad you checked! -
Eh, it's Roy Blunt and he is a stone-cold asshole. He's like the Bush Sr. of MO. He is a long time congressman and his son (who takes after his father) is governor. But, it is worth a try!
This reminds me of the fun of the 2004 election. Going to the Kerry-place and making calls, taking people yardsigns, meeting John Edwards. Good times.... Until the end that is! ; ) -
that's the spirit! actually, this is a non-partisan issue.
and you're right, that guy is a dick ;-) -
"non-partisan" is only a principle in theory nowadays.
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