<html>
<body>
Dear Registrars:<br><br>
I just received the following from the Sun City Anthem Computer
Club. What is our take on this issue?<br><br>
Regards, BobC<br><br>
<br>
<h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>Save the
Internet</b></font></h1><font face="Verdana" size=4>Current legislation
in both houses of congress threatens to change the internet as we know
it.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
The four principles of broadband policy are:<br><br>
Consumers should be able to:<br>
1-Access all legal content,<br>
2-Use all legal applications and services of their choice,<br>
3-Attach any device to the network that won’t harm the network,<br>
4-Enjoy competition. <br><br>
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” <br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
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. <br><br>
It is up to uscomputer 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 you Senator’s email address at
<a href="http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html">
http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html</a> <br><br>
The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to consider the bill June
8.<br>
Members of the committee:<br><br>
Ted Stevens - Alaska<br>
John McCain - Arizona<br>
Conrad Burns - Montana<br>
Trent Lott - Mississippi<br>
Kay Bailey Hutchison - Texas<br>
Olympia Snowe - Maine<br>
Gordon Smith - Oregon<br>
John Ensign - Nevada<br>
George Allen - Virginia<br>
John Sununu - New Hampshire<br>
Jim DeMint - South Carolina<br>
Daniel K. Inouye - Hawaii<br>
John D. Rockefeller IV - West Virginia<br>
John F. Kerry - Massachusetts<br>
Byron L. Dorgan - North Dakota<br>
Barbara Boxer - California<br>
Bill Nelson - Florida<br>
Maria Cantwell - Washington<br>
Frank Lautenberg - New Jersey<br>
E. Benjamin Nelson - Nebraska <br>
Mark Pryor - Arkansas <br>
David Vitter – Louisiana<br><br>
</font><font face="Lucida Handwriting" size=5>Bob Hewitt<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>Editor, The Journal of the
<a href="http://www.suncitycentercomputerclub.com/">Sun City Center
Computer Club</a>, FL<br>
</font><font face="Verdana">Former 21-year editor for United Press
International<br>
rsh1916( at )juno.com<br><br>
<br>
</font></body>
<br>
</html>