Professor Lessig on the “Net Neutrality vote”

Lawrence Lessig
The slogan does have a nice right to it — “Republicans: They sold the environment to Exxon, and sold the war to Halliburton. Now they want to sell the Internet to at&t.” (yea, the new logo is no-caps. a kinder, gentler …)

In my view, this is good news and bad. Good for the Dems that they got it. Bad that the issue is now within the grips of party politics. I guess it was just a matter of time, given how much money the cable and telcos have put on the table.

I got wind of one comment on these proceedings from a dyed-in-the-wool Bush supporter: “It’s enough to turn me into a Democrat” and went on to say something about this being “the kind of caving in to corporations” that disturbs him.

My comment?  Where does this administration NOT do just that?  It’s just where this issue affects this Bush supporter that the realization comes home.  It’s all about giving them what they want.  It’s getting all the lucrative contracts for the military,  gaining a foothold (or so they thought) in the oil of Iraq,  lifting restrictions on every public health and environment issue so that the big companies there can quit being forced to adversely affect their bottom line in order to  “appease” the regulators who “stand in their way”.  So ,  replacing those “regulator” agencies with partisan ideologues who have not been studying these issues lifelong,  but working as lobbyists FOR those corporate interests who desire “free reign” and fewer “safeguards” that stand in their way.  Education gets worse.  Economy gets ransacked.  The Rich get richer at a record pace,  and middle America continues to be sucked in by inane assurances that Bush cares for the American family. No, he cares for his “base”,  which he proudly proclaimed is that same elite that he pretends to be protecting us from.  Corporations have their best friend of the past 100 years.  Not that I have any illusions about the purity of previous administrations.  I don’t.  I am no fan of Clinton.  I am no fan of Johnson.  Jimmy Carter’s  failures stem mostly,  as I see it,  because he was not “of the system”.  Anyway,  there’s the rant behind the rolling of the eyes I did when I heard that comment.  A related retort I had:  “Welcome to reality. Look around and you’ll see it’s been happening everywhere and all along”

Lessig: Here’s John Kerry on the vote: (bravo, Senator):

(click Continue Reading below to see Lessig’s quotation from Kerry’s speech…Lessig doesn’t link to where this text is from)

Stopping the Big Giveaway — by John Kerry

Yesterday in the Senate Commerce Committee I warned that those of us who believe in net neutrality will block legislation that doesn’t get the job done.

It looks like that’s the fight we’re going to have.

The Commerce Committee voted on net neutrality and it failed on an 11-11 tie. This vote was a gift to cable and telephone companies, and a slap in the face of every Internet user and consumer. It will not stand.

I voted against this lousy bill for two reasons: because net neutrality and internet build-out are crucial to building a more modern and fair Information Society, and both were pushed aside by the Republicans.

Everyone says they don’t want the new world we’re living in to be marked by the digital divide — the term is so clichéd it’s turned to mush — but yesterday was a test of who is willing to ask corporate America to do anything to fix it, and the Commerce Committee failed miserably. Why are United States Senators afraid to say that companies should be expected to foster growth by building out their broadband networks to increase access?

Free and open access to the internet is something all Americans should enjoy, regardless of what financial means they’re born into or where they live. It is profoundly disappointing that the Senate is going let a handful of companies hold internet access hostage by legalizing the cherry-picking of cable service providers and new entrants. That is a dynamic that would leave some communities with inferior service, higher cable rates, and even the loss of service. Not to mention inadequate internet service — in the age of the information.

This bill was passed in committee over our objections. Now we need to fight to either fix it or kill it in the full Senate. Senator Wyden has already drawn a line in the sand — putting a “hold” on the bill, which prevents it from going forward for now. But there will be a day of reckoning on this legislation soon, make no mistake about it, and we need you to get engaged — pressure your Senators, follow the issue, demand net neutrality and build-out.