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Here Come the Bastards
The major telecom firms are trying to pass legislation through Congress, this very week, that will spell The End of the Internet as We Know It. If this vile legislation is allowed to stand, the internet will become as regimented and controlled as television, radio, and the major print media. ISPs will wield absolute control over who can place a site on the internet and who can view it (and, just as importantly, how fast they can view it.) Activities that don’t generate revenue for telecom firms, such as email and instant messaging, will be relegated to “slow lanes” or forced into a “pay per message” model. And Peer To Peer file sharing? Massive bandwidth use with little or no profit potential for internet providers? Yeah, you can forget about that.
This is, most manifestly, not a “Liberal vs. Conservative” issue. The countless little pissant conservative blogs that litter the blogosphere will be just as negatively affected by this legislation as the countless little pissant liberal blogs (like this one.) All of our rights to say and read whatever the hell we want on the internet will be severely curtailed if At&T, Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast, and their Congressional lackeys are allowed to shove this bill through. So check out the broad coalition mobilizing to oppose the bill, sign the petition, and maybe, just maybe, call and/or email your Congresscritter.
It’s going down this week, and there’s no time to lose. Get off your ass and do something.
