mediageek

Category: telecomm

  • Reports and Views on Net Neutrality as the House Debates

    As I write this the House is debating the Markey amendment to add network neutrality protections to the COPE Act. I will bring some clips from this to tomorrow’s radioshow. Today the Washington Post published an Op-Ed from Robert McChesney and Larry Lessig, which breaks down why we need net neutrality in law very simply:…

  • COPE Act on the House Floor Tomorrow — Call Your Rep To Oppose It

    I just got off the phone with the office of Rep. Tim Johnson, my congressperson in the House, asking him to oppose the COPE Act, which goes to the House floor for a vote tomorrow. The COPE act stinks in a variety of ways. First, it would create a national franchise depriving local communities of…

  • Internet Freedom Fight Brewing in the House

    Today the House Judiciary Committee passed the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006,” HR 5417, which offers what SaveTheInternet calls “meaningful protections for Network Neutrality.” All 14 of the committee’s Democrats supported it along with 6 Republicans. 13 Republicans voted against it. Today’s vote is shot across the bow in a turf war, as…

  • Telcos Exploiting Their Bully Pulpit

    Just read an interesting anecdote reblogged at SaveTheInternet. Apparently, AT&T’s astroturf group TV 4US is now telemarketing to ask people: “The internet is going to be more expensive, because big companies like Microsoft and Google are wasting all our bandwidth. Do you think consumers should pay for that? Or should the big companies that are…

  • Growing the Movement To Save the Internet with Moby, REM and Others

    An unsuprising coalition of musicians has come together under the banner of Artists and Musicians for Internet Freedom to support network neutrality legislation. Strangely, the group doesn’t have a website yet, though REM’s website has an announcement about it, and explains the issue rather succinctly: Net Neutrality is the long-held principle that all online speech…

  • Chicago Protest Against AT&T’s Anti-Net-Neutrality Campaign, May 24

    Just received word from Mitchell at Chicago Media Action that they’re planning a protest against AT&T as part of a national Day of Media Outrage: In response to dreadful proposed media-related legislation now working its way through Congress, Chicago Media Action, along with organizers in Boston and New York City (and a number of other…

  • Telco Scare Mongering: High-Bandwidth Video Will Clog the Pipes

    A story about the looming threat of high-bandwidth video on the internet, authored by AP technology writer Peter Svensson, has been making the rounds of the blogosphere today. In it, a Verizon lobbyist claims that “The plain truth is that today’s access and backbone networks simply do not have the capacity to deliver all that…

  • A Thin Facade of Democracy that Fred Upton Doesn’t Even Try To Believe

    Aw, come on, you didn’t think that debates in committee and on the House and Senate floor really amounted to anything, did you? Rep. Fred Upton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sure as hell does, and was remarkably candid about that fact last week, as reported by the Cox News Service: The…

  • An Hour on Net Neutrality with McChesney and Co.

    Yesterday’s edition of Prof. Bob McChesney’s weekly radio program was dedicated to net neutrality, with guests Tim Karr of Free Press and Adam Green, of MoveOn.org, which I think only recently joined the campaign. It’s a packed hour and worth listening to, especially since guys like Karr have been pretty much living and breathing net…

  • Little Telcos’ Merger Challenge Adds New Wrinkle to Net Neutrality Fight

    Last year the dual mergers of AT&T with SBC and Verizon with MCI passed the justice department with nary a speedbump and only the most minimal of conditions. Those mergers also gave reason to kick off the campaign for network neutrality, because it was the newly engorged and emboldened AT&T and Verizon which started making…