Net Neutrality: Telcos Want to Charge Web Sites for Web Speed, Access Preference

[mandy]

CNN article argues that the introduction of a 2-tiered Internet would be a "stealth web tax" on consumers as online merchants and content providers like Google, Yahoo, Amazon raised prices to cover the "toll" charges.

What does this mean for the rest of us? A stealth Web tax, for one thing.

"Google and Amazon and Yahoo are not going to slice those payments out of their profit margins and eat them," says Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a nonprofit group that monitors media-related legislation. "They're going to pass them on to the consumer. So I'll end up paying twice. I'm going to pay my $29.99 a month for access, and then I'm going to pay higher prices for consumer goods all across the economy because these Internet companies will charge more for online advertising."

Worse still, Scott argues, the plan stands to sour your Web experience. If, for instance, your favorite blogger refused to ante up, her pages would load more slowly on your computer than would content from Web sites that had paid the fees...

full article: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/05...index.html

[mandy]

The U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of Net neutrality on Thursday, dealing a bitter blow to Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google that had engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to support it.

By a 269-152 vote that fell largely along party lines, the House Republican leadership mustered enough votes to reject a Democrat-backed amendment that would have enshrined stiff Net neutrality regulations into federal law and prevented broadband providers from treating some Internet sites differently from others...

"The future Sergey Brins, the future Marc Andreessens, of Netscape and Google...are going to have to pay taxes" to broadband providers, said Rep. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat behind the Net neutrality amendment. This vote will change "the Internet for the rest of eternity," he warned...

full article: http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6081882.html?part=rss&tag=6081882&subj=news

[jezebel]

The U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of Net neutrality on Thursday,

Boinking  mileyazwipe: s!!!

[mandy]

Another Net Neutrality bill set to be voted on in the US Senate:

A vote on one telecommunications bill that seeks to address Net Neutrality is expected later this week, but just what will be voted on is far from clear. Dubbed the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686), the Senate bill backed by Ted Stevens (R-AK) could be voted on as early as this Thursday, June 22. The vote would take place in the Commerce Committee's weekly session, a necessary step before reaching the attention of the full Senate.

Stevens' bill takes a studied approach to Net Neutrality, literally. The bill's current form would authorize the FCC to study the issue of Net Neutrality for a period of five years in order to separate reality from the rhetoric, as it were. The FCC would also handle complaints of abuse during that time. But Stevens' ranking colleague on the Commerce Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), has said that this is too little, and Inouye has offered his own legislation as a tactic to push Stevens into a compromise...

full article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060618-7078.html

[mandy]

The small company perspective:

Some small businesses are worried that a proposed Internet fast lane will make it tough for them to compete with bigger rivals.

AT&T and others want to offer extra-speedy delivery to sites that pay extra. They're targeting bandwidth-intensive services such as video downloading and Internet calling.

That would be a disaster for "little companies like ours," says Mary Hodder, CEO of start-up Dabble in Berkeley, Calif. When it launches next month, Dabble will allow users to search and discuss online videos.

The eight-person firm can take on bigger sites because the Internet is a great equalizer, Hodder says. If that changes, little guys will get squeezed, she says...

full article: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/PPPF...lity.xhtml

[mandy]

The inventor of the Web speaks out in favor of net neutrality:

When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA...

Let's see whether the United States is capable as acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interested of large corporations.

I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated. ...

full article: http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4

[mandy]

Article presents four differing viewpoints on the Net Neutrality debate:

The debate over net neutrality is expected to pick up again in the fall, but users remain the forgotten stakeholders. While big telecommunications players duke it out with the likes of Google and Yahoo, here's a look at four differing views.

For Dr. René Alvarez, a surgeon from Homer, Alaska, the debate surrounding network neutrality isn't about the digital minutia of speeds and tiered services; it could be about life and death.

For his patients in Alaska's interior, the Internet isn't a link to movies and games. "The Internet," he said during a recent meeting in Boston, "is their lifeline, their link to the outside world." ...

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2001120,00.asp

[mandy]

The trade association of US cable companies  has issued a very misleading commercial that attempts to convince consumers that Net Neutrality is bad for consumers.  Watch the video here:

http://www.ncta.com/ContentView.aspx?ContentID=3526

In other Net Neutrality news, SaveThe Internet.com's blog has coverage of public demos that took place in several US cities last week in favor of Net Neutrality: http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/

[FiberGuy]

So.... don't support the multi-billion dollar silicon companies... support the multi-billion dollar telco companies, right?

No matter how ya slice it... the more the feds get involved, the more they'll foul things up for everyone... and that everyone usually starts at the bottom.. .the little guys. 

Is there anyone in Wahsington that isn't bought and paid for?

fuckheads

[jezebel]

No matter how ya slice it... the more the feds get involved, the more they'll foul things up for everyone... and that everyone usually starts at the bottom.. .the little guys. 

The little guys will probably lose no matter which multi-billion corporate side wins.