Hi! http://2.aosauawl.info/70_0.html . Thanks!…

True neutrality is the real myth. We’ve got content laws, and rights management to protect the innocent to protect the creative, to promote the narcissitic, salvage reputation. Information in all forms does not flow freely.

Propaganda is what your selling with pointing at the few protecting free market forces and not caving into the hype of ‘Net Neutrality’.

And btw — no one said the ISPs shouldn’t be allowed to make money. The notion that they aren’t already is ludicrous — as is the idea that they want a world free of regulation.

The 2006 revenues of the nation’s four largest ISPs exceeded $200 billion. Of that, more than $100 billion is recorded as gross profit. (Yes. These are the same companies — AT&T and Verizon included — that routinely plead poverty when it comes to investing in broadband buildout).

For decades they have lobbied for favorable legislation that has cleared the path for their near monopoly control of broadband access in many U.S. markets. As Cory Doctorow wrote: “They themselves are creatures of government regulation, basing their business on government-granted extraordinary privileges.”

That the U.S. has fallen from 3rd to 16th in broadband penetration strongly indicates that these “privileges” have not been extended to the U.S. public. As is the fact that the consumer cost per bit of broadband access in America exceeds — in some cases by 100 times — the cost for access in countries like Japan, South Korea, France, Canada, Australia and Sweden.

It’s discouraging to see a CWA member mouth telco executives’ talking points without blinking. Google, eBay, Yahoo and others pay millions of dollars to the telcos for access to the Internet. It’s helpful to this debate NOT to buy into AT&T’s line that they’re getting ripped off. And don’t fall into the trap that’s ensnared telco shills who have spread similar myths without offering a shred of evidence.

As far as the CWA being against an open internet, mabey you read the info on the speedmatters website that Laura spoke to. It sure dosen’t look that way to me.

From a union perspective buildout = job security for telecom workers. This is good not only for you and your coworkers, but also for our common goal of providing cheaper, faster Internet for more people.

On that we agree.

You said “We believe there should be requirements against discrimination against sites and content.”

So it seems we also agree on Net Neutrality requirements that bar the telcos from discriminating against content — the sort of discrimination they have, time and again, said they plan to implement in order to pay for infrastructure.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is that your colleagues in decision making positions at CWA have bought the telco argument that AT&T and Verizon need to discriminate (erect new tollbooths that allow the ISPs to pick and choose which content gets access to their special lanes and which does not) in order to build out services.

This is a red herring and your colleagues should know better. The telcos are already making the investment in buildout and will continue to do so with Net Neutrality conditions (AT&T acceptance of NN conditions in its merger with BellSouth didn’t stop them from further buildout investment. It didn’t hobble the company in any way. In fact, the company’s stock value rose by more than 10% in the 30 days after it agreed to the conditions).

It’s of absolute importance right now that we have public policy to create the conditions for a massive build out to all communities in America. The Internet is that important to free speech innovation and economic growth. But if you provide communities with an Internet that is stripped of its most fundamental freedom, Net Neutrality, you’re giving them something less than the true Internet — where ultimate choice is in the hands of the Telcos and not the end users.

So why is the CWA so opposed to Net Neutrality? What happened at the upper levels of the union to force a decision to side with the telco effort to fundamentally undermine the (small “d”) democratic values of the Internet?

That’s the real mystery here.

We’d be happy to support your speedmatters effort. All the CWA needs to do is support Net Neutrality. You can’t truly “connect Americans to each other” without it.