Sarah Solon

Hey Comcast! Keep your quill out of the community ink.

There's a reason that www.drummajorinstitute.org has the same ability to be seen by someone browsing the Internet as Fox News Online. The Internet is a democratic platform on which all sites load equally quickly and well. That is, until large telecommunications companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast saw an opportunity to increase their profits by overriding the neutrality of the net and creating a virtual express lane so that sites of high-paying customers are seen with greater ease.

Luckily, persuaded by the netroots, advocacy organizations and the non-profits and small businesses they represented, as well as the large corporations like search engines who make money off of regular people having easy access to the web, Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) are back on the scene.

Their "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2007" (a carbon copy of the 2006 bill that won a spot on our best public policy of 2006 list) was reintroduced this week! It aims to prohibit Internet providers from favoring some sites over others.

Without net neutrality, the Internet would become a virtual bidding ground catering to those willing to shell-out the most. Sure, on a corporate-controlled Internet we could still stream CNN, but what about the Two Guys videos that truly made my year in 2006?

And what about policy blogs and sites aimed at organizing the grassroots? To blatantly rip-off the Rising Jurist: Without net neutrality, there would be no reason to host and post on [DMIBlog.com.] "No access means no audience."

So here's a cheer and a fingers-crossed-hope-that-it-will-pass for the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2007 (excerpt):

"With respect to any broadband service offered to the public, each broadband service provider shall...enable any content, application, or service made available via the Internet to be offered, provided, or posted on a basis that... does not impose a charge on the basis of the type of content, applications, or services..."

Here's a good video explaining the whole net neutrality issue:

And because it's Friday, here's my favorite Two Guys video. Not at all topical, just a shameless plug of something I love:

Sarah Solon: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 10:25 AM, Jan 12, 2007 in Politics
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