Rep. Ed Markey has a post up on HuffPo today that calls for the online public to support his bill, HR 3458, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act", which he and Rep. Anna Eshoo proposed in July. He notes that it is a legislative support for the actions the FCC took last week to preserve equal access to the internet for all content providers (this is what is commonly referred to as "net neutrality").
Contrast that with John McCain's recently introduced "Internet Freedom Act of 2009", which is a newspeak name for an attempt to make sure that the internet can be easily controlled by commercial entities - the "freedom" it refers to is freedom from regulation by the FCC (because watching the economy crash has shown us how well deregulation works!)
McCain admitted during his campaign for the presidency that he didn't use the internet, but has received more donations from the companies who would benefit from this legislation than any other senator. His bill would allow those companies to privilege the upload of some content over other content (kind of like what's happening with your cable bill now), and frustrate the actions the FCC just took to preserve the open access to the internet that has made it the most successful communications development in history. Here's Boing Boing Editor Xeni Jardin describing the argument to Rachel Maddow (note the observation that Vint Cerf and most of the others who created the web as we know it today are all on the side of preserving equal access):
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In other words, McCain's bill is crafted to do exactly the opposite of Markey's bill. The distinction is critical, and Markey's bill deserves the support of anyone who values the free exchange of ideas on the web. E-mail, call, or write your representatives today!
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