Posted on 06/09/2006 5:26:45 AM PDT by mathprof
The U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of Net neutrality on Thursday, dealing a bitter blow to Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google that had engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to support it.
By a 269-152 vote that fell largely along party lines, the House Republican leadership mustered enough votes to reject a Democrat-backed amendment that would have enshrined stiff Net neutrality regulations into federal law and prevented broadband providers from treating some Internet sites differently from others.
Of the 421 House members who participated in the vote that took place around 6:30 p.m. PT, the vast majority of Net neutrality supporters were Democrats. Republicans represented most of the opposition.
The vote on the amendment came after nearly a full day of debate on the topic, which prominent Democrats predicted would come to represent a turning point in the history of the Internet. [snip]
At issue is a lengthy measure called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act, which a House committee approved in April. Its Republican backers, along with broadband providers such as Verizon and AT&T, say it has sufficient Net neutrality protections for consumers, and more extensive rules would discourage investment in wiring American homes with higher-speed connections.[snip]
Defenders of the COPE Act, largely Republicans, dismissed worries about Net neutrality as fear mongering.
"I want a vibrant Internet just like they do," said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. "Our disagreement is about how to achieve that. They say let the government dictate it...I urge my colleagues to reject government regulation of the Internet."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.zdnet.com ...
Also, FYI, Moveon.org is a big supporter of "net neutrality".
OK, what is net neutrality?
Heavy government regulation of the internet. "Net neutrality" could have turned out to be like the "Fairness Doctrine" that used to regulate talk radio...
Why would Amazon support it?
So are folks like the Christian Coalition, and Gun Owners of America. What's your point? It's definitely not a partisan issue.
So what? We should support it also.
That's what I heard as well. I'm glad the government stays out.
I think the GOP got it right.
Net neutrality says that your local telco can't (for example) sell you a 1.5Mbps line and throttle it back to 128kbps when you visit the site you want to visit instead of the site the telco wants you to visit.
The GOP is sinking into "crony capitalism" corruption, just as they did on the bankruptcy bill.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
It's simple...keep the gubment out of the net.....period. This would be a first step to many more intrusions...the camels nose under the tent!!!!!
The best I can say is that Net Neutrality is a fancy, friendly name for another government overregulation scheme. IOW, it's a solution for a non-existent problem.
Actually it's nothing like that. It has to do with MPLS and QoS and nothing to do with throughput.
"Net neutrality" is a great name and I want to support it just like supporting "fairness", mom and apple pie. But in looking at what it does, I'm with the GOP on this one.
I agree with you on the BK bill but not this.
First, cable companies and telco dsl are going to be history as wireless EVDO and then WIMAX networks take hold.
The population will transition from wired to wireless.
So the fight will be over who will control the air, not the wire.
And in a wireless world, we should always have a choice to change carriers and port our IP and email addresses, and our voice numbers if a carrier interferes with our choices.
Here's the next big thing:
http://www.treocentral.com/
In the meantime it is best that the government stay the hell out of putting their nose into our internet affairs.
It is the government telling the telcos to leave the Internet content-neutral as it is now. IOW, don't mess with the recipe that made the Internet great.
To over-use a metaphor, imagine the information superhighway. The telcos currently have a toll booth to get on, and a toll booth to get off. Now they want to put another toll booth in the middle and charge more depending on what kind of car you drive on the road.
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