Fwd: Big Telco's sock puppets

[Guest guest]

Big Telco's sock puppets

 

 

 

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/36314/

 

Yesterday at the Personal Democracy Forum Conference, the closing panel of

the day was a debate concerning Net Neutrality and the future of our free

(as in speech) access to the Internet. Representing advocates for keeping

the Internet fair and open were Timothy Karr of Free Press, and Susan

Crawford, who is an Associate Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School,

covering communications and copyright issues galore. On the other side,

pushing for corporate gatekeepers to take over who gets to do what on the

Internet, we had Steve Effros, the former longtime head of Cable

Telecommunications Association, and Christopher Wolf, co-chair of Hands

Off the Internet.

 

Hmmmmm... " Hands Off the Internet? " Doesn't that sound like an advocacy

group who would be in favor of Net Neutrality, of preserving the status

quo for how the Internet operates? From their website:

 

" Hands Off The Internet is a nationwide coalition of Internet users

united together in the belief that the Net's phenomenal growth over the

past decade stems from the ability of entrepreneurs to expand consumer

choices and opportunities without worrying about government regulation. "

 

Using your secret decoder ring, you can translate this out of

corporate-speak and into real world experience: they want to prevent any

kind of legal protection of users' access to the Internet. Who are these

jokers, anyways? Let's have a look at their " member organizations " ...

 

* AT & T

* BellSouth

* Cingular

* American Conservative Union

* National Association of Manufacturers

* Frontiers of Freedom

 

Riiiiiight.

 

Susan Crawford certainly delivered the most smackdowns-per-turn, handing

the telco's sock-puppets their asses regularly. It was fascinating to hear

the telcos whine about how it's just so expensive to try and get everyone

access to the Internet -- completely forgetting those tax abatements they

received as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act to provide

optical fiber (and thus, the groundwork for blazing Internet access) to

every home in America. Instead, it was cheaper for them to offer DSL on

existing copper wiring, so they took the money and ran. And now, they're

claiming victimhood while trying to steal a fundamental tool for the

future of America. Don't let them.

 

 

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet.