Free Republic

Pelosi Statement on Republican Bill Attacking the Open Internet April 08, 2011 Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after House Republicans voted to disapprove of the Federal Communications Commissions’ net neutrality rules preserving the openness of the internet and protecting free speech: “Instead of putting Americans first and working in a bipartisan way to keep the government operating, House Republicans chose to devote time today to a resolution that undermines the open internet and will not become law. “An open internet enhances consumer choice, supports entrepreneurship, encourages innovation, and ensures competition in our economy....

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, has declared that content should be free and open to all Internet users and that any variation is a violation of the principle of network neutrality. The sentiment is quite different than his explanation of net neutrality some years back. In my paper Last-Mile Dilemma, I noted that, "Neutrality of the Internet is rather the idea that individuals on differing systems of connectivity and differing speeds of delivery should still have the ability to communicate with each other without applications or locations on the Internet being blocked or the traffic purposefully slowed....

Tim Wu, the coiner of the term "network neutrality", and a senior adviser to the FTC, has an interesting solution to solve the non-existent problems plaguing the tech industry. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: "In the class at MIT, Wu floats some hypothetical ways you could fight abuse... "something like term limits for monopolists. In theory, the government could say, 'Well, this company has clearly shown it's corrupt. ... So let's just nationalize their source code.'"

The internet is under threat. At risk is what's known as "net neutrality", or the principle of free access for each user to every online site, regardless of content. That's the view of the man who coined the above term, Tim Wu, whose new book, The Master Switch, was published yesterday. It argues the internet now runs the risk of not just political censorship – as seen in Libya and Egypt, and in the American reaction to WikiLeaks – but that of commercial censorship, too. Monopolies such as Google and Apple may soon decide to choose which parts of the...

Tim’s ideas on tech policy trouble me deeply. I’ll ignore the fact that he gave birth to the term “net neutrality” and that he chaired the radical regulatory activist group, Free Press. Instead, I just want to remind folks of one very troubling recommendation for the information sector that he articulated in his new book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. While his book was preoccupied with corporate power and the ability of media and communications companies to posses a supposed “master switch” over speech or culture, I’m more worried about the “regulatory switch” that Tim...

Concludes Cleland: FTC advisor Tim Wu + President Obama’s pledge of no burdensome regulation = regulatory dissonance. That’s a problem which may see little end. Wu joins an excusive and growing club of Soros-connected federal policymakers (current and former), including Mark Lloyd, Chief Diversity Officer at the FCC; Van Jones, (once) Special Advisor to the President for Green Jobs; Ben Scott, Advisor for Innovation Policy at the State Department; and Jen Howard, Senior Communications Advisor for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the last three all from Free Press board or staff).

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski still has a lot of explaining to do concerning his frequent visits to the White House during the time the commission was developing its net neutrality rules. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told the chairman that his response to earlier inquiries into the role the Obama administration played in the controversial policy is inadequate. “In the fourteen months since my initial request, the FCC has done little to demonstrate its independence from the White House,” wrote Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a letter dated today. The letter cites White House...

This is what happens when a bad comedian become a politician. What does man know about actual freedom? Does he even know how the Internet actually works? Does he really think its a "free" non-profit network of equal access and use for everyone? Sure the Internet is the largest and most inclusive network throughout the world that is not controlled or owned by anyone group or the government. But it is not something for free like the air we breathe and it is not something with unlimited space. The Internet is a group of smaller networks, computers and servers owned...

AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality. "I came here to warn you, the party may be over," Franken said. "They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.”

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is denying a charge that White House officials improperly influenced the commission’s net neutrality rules. In a November 2009 letter to Genachowski, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said media reports suggest “that Obama administration officials had knowledge of and potentially contributed to [the] crafting of” the controversial net neutrality rules. Specifically, Issa noted that a 2009 American Spectator article said a draft of the net neutrality rules had been circulated to Obama administration officials — and that Genachowski and President Barack Obama made suspiciously similar remarks about the rules on Sept. 21, 2009. Issa — then the...

Ever since it passed, the national health care law commonly known as ObamaCare has been entangled in legal battles and heated national debate. As polls have consistently shown, a majority of the public remains opposed to the law and many are worried because they never found out what was even in it. While the law has spurred countless news stories, a recent one you may have missed involved the attorney David Rivkin, who successfully led the multi-state challenge to ObamaCare filed in Florida. A prominent conservative voice, Rivkin has been a staunch defender of the Constitution in a variety of...

John Boehner thinks net neutrality rules are a threat to freedom in the United States (paraphrased, but that’s the thrust; click the link at left to see him in his own words). It’s a weird concept, given that Capitalism is replete with restrictions on freedom. I’m not free to borrow my neighbor’s car without asking, and when I sign a contract that I break, my freedom is greatly impinged by the full force of the legal system that will fall upon my rule-breaking head. I can’t reprint the latest Stephen King novel and sell it in a book store, and...

House Speaker John A. Boehner lashed out against efforts to regulate Internet traffic before an audience of evangelical Christian media leaders and pointedly responded to President Obama by comparing the challenge of the burgeoning national debt to the Sputnik-era space race. “The last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades,” he said to loud applause from members of the National Religious Broadcasters, a trade group holding its annual convention here. “You may recall President Obama,...

Net neutrality is an innocuous sounding term for what is really media Marxism. This is an ideological attempt by those on the left to control the greatest means for the distribution of information ever devised. It provides a playing field which the government does not control, and this is immensely troubling to those on the left. There are two pieces to net neutrality: Equal Access: Equal access says that everyone should always have equal priorities to the flow of information on the internet. In practice, this means that if I am updating my Twitter account, and my neighbor is downloading...

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House Passes Amendment to Block Funds for Net Neutrality Order

So much for objectivity. One of the FCC stipulations of the Comcast – NBCU merger was the incorporation of non-profit journalism centers into NBC newsrooms. They are charged with maintaining and increasing local news coverage, the regulation based on the relationship between KNSD-TV and VoiceofSanDiego.org. KNSD airs the segments, but really can’t take all the credit for them. They are largely the work ofVoiceOfSanDiego.org, a local nonprofit journalism center that has been sharing news tips, co-producing and supplying content to the station for several years. [...] Under the terms of the FCC order approving Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, at least...

The Catholic Bishops support net-neutrality rules. In a letter to Congress last week outlining public policy priorities, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops endorsed the controversial broadband policy. "True net neutrality is necessary for people to flourish in a democratic society," the letter said. The bishops said they support federal regulations and legislation that "ensure equal access to the Internet for all, including religious and non-profit agencies, as well as those in more sparsely populated or economically distressed areas." The letter also addressed marriage, abortion and the economy, among various other policy issues.

Half of Republicans are Tea Party supporters; 5% are "opponents" PRINCETON, NJ -- About 7 in 10 national adults, including 88% of Republicans, say it is important that Republican leaders in Congress take the Tea Party movement's positions and objectives into account as they address the nation's problems. Among Republicans, 53% rate this "very important."These results are from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Jan. 14-16, prior to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.Although few Democrats (6%) are supporters of the Tea Party or even have a favorable view of it (11%), more than half say it is important...

L.A.-area elementary school blocks religious content, tells student to pick song that ‘does not say Jesus so many times’ Tuesday, February 01, 2011 LOS ANGELES — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Friday against Los Angeles Unified School District officials on behalf of a 5th-grade student who was prohibited from performing interpretive movement to a song at a school talent show scheduled for Feb. 4 because of the song’s religious lyrics. Students were permitted to choose the content of their performances--some approved performances include songs discussing teenage “love,” relationship problems, dancing, and violent imagery--yet Superior Street Elementary School officials...