[wplug] Fw: Call Congress, save the Internet

[Patrick Wagstrom]

> Does anyone know if this is actually real?  A google on "Network Neutrality"
> and "COPE telecom law" brings up _nothing_ other can copies of this message.
> 
> It seems to me that if there were a real issue occurring, google would
> have links to something official regarding the "COPE telecom law", yet I
> can find nothing.

Yes it's real, it's the current telecom bill being rammed through
congress.  Unfortunately, this has already twice - 8-23 and 22-34.  Just
need more people to speak up on this sort of thing.  Doyle is on the
commerce committee so he can have a real impact on the outcome of this.

Confused about what all this is?

Well, why not ask a ninja?
http://videobomb.com/posts/show/2420

Or have the guys from Halo explain it:
http://videobomb.com/posts/show/2368

Maybe a Dr. Seussian explanation is better:
http://isen.com/blog/2006/01/my-oreilly-etel-talk.html

Here's a link to the draft senate telecom bill - note the giveaways to
big time telecom:
http://static.publicknowledge.org/pdf/stevens-cccbda-draft-20060501.pdf

As a side note, Muni-wifi is sorta illegal (I say sorta because people
keep on trying it with no side effects) because Verizon lobbied through
some protection.  They claimed that without the protection they couldn't
do things like wire up the schools.  Of course, they also forgot to
mention the $900+ million in tax breaks they've received since 1997 to
do just that in PA -- of which they've done basically nothing.

Oh well.

--Patrick