Saving Internet Equality

SAVING INTERNET EQUALITY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News 5/16, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The future of the Internet is in the hands of Congress, and Congress is about to mess it up. The choice facing lawmakers is stark: keep the Internet as a decentralized network that no single company controls and where all users and all Web sites are treated equally; or hand control over it to an oligopoly of cable and telephone companies. Shamefully, Congress appears inclined to do the latter by refusing to adopt so-called 'network neutrality' rules. It's a choice that would be disastrous for Internet users, for Internet companies and for innovation itself. Outside the San Francisco Bay Area, few lawmakers seem to understand that by not enacting network neutrality legislation, they'd be subverting the basic principles that have made the Internet into such a powerful force for economic growth. Perhaps, it's because they've been worn down by armies of lobbyists from the telephone and cable industries. It's time for online users everywhere -- those who search on Google, download songs from Apple, buy books from Amazon, run businesses on eBay, make phone calls on Skype or simply read e-mail and surf the Web -- to let them know the Internet is too valuable to be sold off to special interests.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/14594744.htm