Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Democrats and Net Neutrality
The Committee that was reviewing net neutrality this past year failed to pass the legislation onto the legislative houses in a tie vote. This was great news for people who believe that the Internet should remain a level playing field.
While the fun was going on, I was encouraging everybody I could to call, email, fax their Representatives and let them know that they support a flat Internet.
With both the house and the senate in Democratic hands, it seems likely that this issue should go away. The Democrats now control key committees and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) it seems will be the the committee chair person for the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee while John Dingell of Michigan will take the place of Ted Stevens on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Save the Internet has a great post dealing with the change in power on the hill.
How does this issue affect the arts? Well, most arts organizations have some level of Web presence. In the case of WESTAF, where I work, much activity is engaged on the Web. If the new laws were passed ceasing Net Neutrality, we could have been pressed by the telecoms to pay extra money to pass our packets to our end users in a timely fashion. In other words, it could have brought CultureGrants Online(tm), ZAPP(tm), CaFE(tm), ArtistsRegister, and Artjob to a halt.
While the fun was going on, I was encouraging everybody I could to call, email, fax their Representatives and let them know that they support a flat Internet.
With both the house and the senate in Democratic hands, it seems likely that this issue should go away. The Democrats now control key committees and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) it seems will be the the committee chair person for the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee while John Dingell of Michigan will take the place of Ted Stevens on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Save the Internet has a great post dealing with the change in power on the hill.
How does this issue affect the arts? Well, most arts organizations have some level of Web presence. In the case of WESTAF, where I work, much activity is engaged on the Web. If the new laws were passed ceasing Net Neutrality, we could have been pressed by the telecoms to pay extra money to pass our packets to our end users in a timely fashion. In other words, it could have brought CultureGrants Online(tm), ZAPP(tm), CaFE(tm), ArtistsRegister, and Artjob to a halt.
