Net neutrality

article written by Heather.

Yes, things move at a slow rural redneck pace here in the UK, at least as far as undertsanding US politics. However, I have just found out about “net neutrality” and why it is no longer going to exist.

No less a person than St. Tim Berners-Lee voiced concerns over this, reported  on the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5063072.stm. He said that this would be a dark period for the Internet.

The so-called COPE Act (What is with laws having to have snappy names now?) was passed by 321-101 votes. This will basically make it OK to have two levels of Internet - the good bit for the companies that can pay and the duff bit for the rest of us. The bill was opposed by Google, E-Bay and Amazon (and a “film star” I’ve never heard of.) They unsuccessfully tried to get support for an amendment that would guarantee equal access.

Having only just heard about this and understanding as little as I normally do about US politics, let alone the business imperatives underlying the Internet, it seems ominous. I need to look into it. If anyone can explain it better, please write to us here.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: , , , .

« Text and email addiction
The World Cup »

2 Responses to “Net neutrality”

  1. Why Dont You…Blog? » Two Tier Internet WordPress 2.0.2 wrote:

    [...] Following the rant about the “COPE act” I felt the need to say my two pence as well. [...]

    This comment was written at June 9th, 2006 at 20:54,

  2. Why Dont You…Blog? » One internet for all WordPress 2.0.2 wrote:

    [...] Following on from our previous article about this - Well, I think this link from google adsense says it all: (The original document is at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/06/letter-from-eric-schmidt-ceo.html) Dear AdSense Publisher, [...]

    This comment was written at June 12th, 2006 at 18:21,