Stand Up Against the US Telecomm Industry’s Campaign to Steal the Net - Without Leaving Your Desk
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I’m passing this email from FreePress.net on to all of you in hopes you’ll do your little part to keep web 2.0 growing, instead of passively allow it to be crippled by the US telecommunications industry. Like public transportation’s murder by the auto industry in the first half of the 20th century, the telecommunications industry is trying to murder the future of free and sane access to information for good old capitalistic, big lobbying, politicians-in-the-pocket profit. Please spread the word and take a bit of action. FreePress does their part by making that action a click away for you. Here it is and thanks -
Dear Clay,
| |
What if I told you we could use empty TV channels to connect millions of Americans to the Internet?
New technology would do just that. But the powerful TV broadcast lobby is standing in the way with a multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign.
The Federal Communications Commission is about to make a critical choice: support innovation or side with the broadcasters and let the United State slide further behind the rest of the world in Internet access.
Tell the FCC: Open the Internet for Everyone
The fight for universal Internet access is now being waged over “white spaces” — empty frequencies between television channels on the public airwaves. New devices can use these vacant airwaves to connect millions to the information superhighway, including many people still stuck on dial-up — or without any service at all.
Here’s the problem. The National Association of Broadcasters wants to keep white spaces for themselves. This week, they’re blitzing Washington with television ads and a swarm of lobbyists. They’re making outright false claims that any new devices will interfere with over-the-air TV broadcasts.
Their scare tactics are aimed at convincing the FCC and Congress to stifle new technologies that can revolutionize our airwaves. Unless we act now, the FCC could side with the broadcasters and deny us one of our last opportunities to deliver a better Internet to more people.
Take Action: Open White Spaces for Everyone
It’s a familiar story. Big media companies will use any means to squash new ideas that threaten their control. For too long, our policymakers put the narrow interests of a few conglomerates before innovation, competition and the public good.
Last year we sent 1.5 million letters to Congress and halted the phone and cable industry efforts to kill Net Neutrality. This year, we’re fighting to make the Internet available and affordable to everyone. Opening up white spaces is key to creating the healthy competition, consumer choices and technological innovation we need to provide an open Internet to all.
We can win this fight. Take action to open white spaces today.
Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
www.savetheinternet.com
1. Learn more: Visit our “Save Our Spectrum” initiative to learn more about white spaces.
2. Report back: Did you take action on this issue? Join a conversation with other activists at the Free Press Action Network.
3. Become a Free Press Action Fund member: Our team in Washington needs your help to counter Big Media’s lobbyists. Your donation of $50 or more will make sure public interest advocates represent our views before the FCC and on Capitol Hill.
If you like this post, please spread it: 
(But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)
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A Telecom Corporate shill at an anti-net neutrality website _that does not allow comments_ left this bit of PR on my site. I’ve deleted it because the username links back to the spineless site (”We’ll attack net neutrality on other sites, but won’t allow comments attacking our position on our site”), but I’ll leave the comment here as a masterpiece of standard PR and misinformation:
Clay, I consult for a group in DC that includes AT&T from the telecom field. I can’t speak for AT&T, but I can safely say, this FreePress letter is not very helpful.
The lack of specifics is telling. How does the telecom industry want to kill the Internet? Doesn’t say. And why would they want to? If they removed the content people like on the Internet, either people would get their Internet from cable or another competitor, or they would get Congress to go after them.
Lastly, this one claim is especially dubious: “Last year we sent 1.5 million letters to Congress and halted the phone and cable industry efforts to kill Net Neutrality.” OK, so they sent letters, and… what happened? Nothing. Apparently they’re turning away from that, because they haven’t gotten anywhere.
The only consistency is they want more federal regulation. But the Internet has done pretty well without being regulated, thank you very much.
[End of AT&T Lobbyist's comment]
–
My reply will follow.
[Reply]
Clay Burell
20 Sep 07 at 1:24 pm
My reply to the Paid Attacker of Net Neutrality (who, again, allows no reader input on his website for very obvious reasons: it’s full of disinformation and FOX News type slander of opposing views):
LOBBYIST, Since you work for the telecom industry (decent of you to make the disclosure), it’s not surprising you’re against net neutrality. Your claim that “nothing happened” after a million plus letters where collected and sent last year is logically empty, since you can’t claim to have that knowledge. And you surely know that Congress did not, surprisingly, roll over for the telecom lobby last year in the first of many battles your well-funded lobby will wage.
As for your last red herring, the “federal regulation” boogeyman, let’s not be fear-mongers here. Federal regulation is what keeps our roads, highways, and airways intact, our water clean. It’s not always a bad thing.
And it often helps your paymasters through regulating corporate welfare.
Bottom line: nobody’s paying me to support net neutrality. Somebody is paying you to have a website (I just visited) dedicated to taking it from me.
[Reply]
Clay Burell
20 Sep 07 at 1:28 pm