It appears that in the effort to turn our internet into another version of cable TV, the telecom companies have found themselves making some powerful enemies.
I just got an email from Meg Whitman today, CEO of eBay. In it she sets up a call to action, in support of all of us that want the net to be equal for everyone.
What I like about this campaign, as opposed to just funding a large amount of lobbyists like the telecoms have, is that it gets the millions of people involved in eBay to do something progressive, in a people powered way. I know I'll be sending this along to people I know, whether they use eBay or not, because it frames this issue very nicely into "non-geek" terms.
In her own words:
"The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.
The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road."
The main body of the email is in extended...
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