Following up on my “Save the Internet Today” post, “Rob” comments:
I certainly appreciate the energy behind this movement, but I honestly feel that there’s more to it.It’s important to note that “Rob” links back to a site called “Hands off the Internet,” which bills itself as a grassroots, consumer-oriented, anti-regulation “national coalition of Internet users.” In reality, it is a front group primarily funded by AT&T and BellSouth. Their list of “Member Organizations” reads like a who’s who of the telecommunications industry. Where are these “Internet users” they’re talking about? There’s more information about this astroturf site at SourceWatch.The more government regulation we put into the business, and the more red tape we put in the way of developers, the more we bog down advancement.
I also find it interesting that a lot of these “member organizations” are the same companies who benefited from government-sanctioned monopolies to build their communications infrastructure in the first place. (See also “The Phone Company Killed My Grandmother”)
I certainly don’t trust the government to do the right thing, but I trust corporations less, especially ones (BellSouth) who have already said that they will block certain types of traffic if they only could.
FreePress.org has a good piece explaining why the anti-regulation spin HandsOff (and others) are putting on this issue is bogus:
What is not true is that the Internet has never been regulated, or that the imposition of Net neutrality rules will harm the Internet….So, thanks, “Rob,” for providing me an opportunity to expose you for the fraud that you and your organization truly are. What are you gonna do? Block my site?With the removal of those common carrier safeguards, the telephone company, like the cable company, is free to raise rates at will, discriminate in favor of their own Internet service provider, favor their own content and services, and even refuse to offer you broadband service at all.
