Rosher.Net

I note with some discomfort the passage of the COPE Telecom Bill in the States (that land of the free). The Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act allows for American telecommunications companies -providing IP, telephony and cable TV among other services – to operate as private entities; channelling content of their choice, or offering multi-level access where premium access to the Internet is available to the few. Of course, many ISP portals filter their content and offer the same premium access to their sites, but this is the whole flippin’ Internet!

Net Neutrality has been a given in the so-called free world since the inception of the INternet. Only in more rigidly authoritarian countries is access to the ‘net so tightly controlled. Franchising access in this way will allow the major players to dictate opinion to consumers who would have little alternative access to information; remember this includes TV as well.

What happens in America often happens here a year or two later…

http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=1539607
http://www.storiesonvideo.com/cope.html
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/09/1427218
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0609-24.htm

technorati tags: COPE Act, Internet, Neutrality