News April 28, 2006
Thursday Apr 27, 2006 |
Telecommunications giants scored a victory
over Net Neutrality advocates in the U.S.
legislature yesterday as the proposed
"Markey Amendment," a provision to prevent
Internet providers from creating access
chokepoints was voted down in the House of
Representatives.
Editor's Note:
Did the House Energy and
Commerce Committee sell out the Internet? Or
do you think Net Neutrality supporters are
overreacting? Share your thoughts on this
very important issue in
WebProWorld.
 The
amendment's defeat has caused a firestorm of
accusations against the telecom industry and
the legislators siding with them in the
debate. A diverse and growing opposition
believes that Congress members like Rep. Joe
Barton (R-TX) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-ILL),
who pushed for the amendment's defeat, are
acting not in favor of their constituency
but in favor of the big-money telecom
industry.
Telecoms, like AT&T and Verizon, want to
create a two-tiered Internet where customers
and content providers can be charged for
premium content delivery at higher speeds
and quality than other content. The harshest
critics believe that ability will give ISPs
the ability to block, slow, or degrade
content unfavorable to them, including
access to websites and email.
The Markey Amendment, proposed for addition
to the Communications Opportunity, Promotion
and Enhancement Act (COPE), was created to
protect what proponents call "Network
Neutrality," a philosophy that the Internet
should remain free and open to encourage
innovation, startup business, and free
speech. Called the "Internet's First
Amendment," this concept is supported by
Internet and technology giants like Google
and Microsoft.
The amendment expressly warned the telecom
industry " not to block, impair, degrade,
discriminate against, or interfere with the
ability of any person to use a broadband
connection to access, use, send, receive, or
offer lawful content, applications, or
services over the Internet." It was voted
down by a vote of 34-22 in the House Energy
and Commerce Committee.
The COPE Act will now move to the full House
for a vote, and then to the Senate if
passed. The Senate Commerce Committee is
expected to propose its own Net Neutrality
legislation in the coming weeks.
"The House vote today ignores a groundswell
of popular support for Internet freedom,”
said Ben Scott, policy director of Free
Press. “We hope that the full House will
resist the big telecom companies and reject
the bill. But we look to the Senate to
restore meaningful protections for net
neutrality and ensure that the Internet
remains open to unlimited economic
innovation, civic involvement and free
speech.”
Free Press recently spearheaded a campaign
through the website
SaveTheInternet.com, a nonpartisan
initiative that attracted over 250,000
petition signatures and over 500 weblog
authors in just a few days. While the
initiative is not apolitical, it is diverse
along party lines with membership ranging
from libertarian Gun Owners of America, to
the Consumers Union, to MoveOn.org.
SaveTheInternet.com doesn't view it as a
total loss, however. The attention the
coalition has generated seems to have made a
large impact on the voting. Before the
initiative launched, Net Neutrality
provisions were shot down 23-8 in the
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the
Internet.
"The telcos have spent hundreds of millions
of dollars and many years lobbying for their
position; we launched four days ago, and
have closed a lot of ground," reads the
website.
“The Commerce Committee is headed in the
opposite direction of where the American
public wants to go,” said Columbia Law
Professor Timothy Wu, a pro-market advocate
and one of the intellectual architects of
the Net Neutrality principle. “Most people
favor an open and neutral Internet and don’t
want Internet gatekeepers taxing and
tollboothing innovation.”
Barton and
Rush Under Scrutiny
Congressmen Barton and Rush have been put
under the microscope by opponents lately for
their financial relationships with the
telecommunications industry. Both vocal
opponents of Net Neutrality provisions in
the Commerce Committee, Barton and Rush led
the charge in defeating the Markey
Amendment.
Many find it no small coincidence that out
of Barton's top three
campaign contributors, the second and
third largest ones are SBC Communications
(now AT&T) and Comcast Corporation. Tied for
12th among contributions is the National
Cable & Telecommunications Association.
The
Chicago Sun-Times points out that Bobby
Rush, the only Democrat to sponsor the bill,
recently "received a $1 million grant from
the charitable arm of SBC/AT&T" for a
community organization Rush is associated
with called the Rebirth of Englewood
Community Development Corporation.
To see which committee members voted against
the Markey Amendment click
here.
About the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for
WebProNews covering technology and
business. |
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