Al Gore on Net Neutrality pages 267-268 from "The Assault on Reason"

[Uncle Joe]

"In making their case for a "tiered Internet"--with first-class and second-class citizens on the Web--the network operators argue that they need to charge Web companies and other content providers in order to pay for the cost of expanding broadband networks.

But everyone who uses the Internet is already helping to pay for it. Everyone who has a Web site, from Google to the smallest blog, pays to upload their content. And everyone connected to the Internet pays for access to it. Both consumers and producers of Internet content pay whatever rate the market allows.

What the networks operators are proposing is that they be given a new right to impose potentially discriminatory charges that would allow them to make exclusive deals with those Internet content companies that pay for the fast lane while slowing down those who cannot pay extra. Network operators could prioritize the transmission of some content--their own, for example--over other material produced by competitors.

If this was to be allowed, Web companies would lose revenues that they could otherwise devote to improvements in old products and innovations in new ones. Worse yet, the smaller content producers who can now capitalize on the two way nature of the Internet -- whether online stores or forums for democratic discourse--might be unable to secure quality service online."

He says much more as well, wake up people the Internet is in danger!

[Eric J in MN]

1. Take Action.

http://savetheinternet.com/=act

[rusty charly]

2. i heard a netzero ad on the radio

"they all take you to the same internet, so why pay more?"

and i thought: not for long.

[Uncle Joe]

3. A little more

"There is a legitimate need to preserve adequate incentives for investments in the expansion of network capacity. But if, in the 1990s network operators had exercised the kind of control they are now seeking, companies like Google,Yahoo, Amazon and others might never have appeared. I serve as a senior adviser to Google and still have a financial interest in it's continued success-- but I also have an interest in the continued success of several of the network operators who are business partners of Current T.V.

So I have seen this controversy from both sides, and I truly believe that the most important factor is the preservation of the Internet's potential for becoming the new neutral marketplace of ideas that is so needed for the revitalization of American democracy. My overriding concern is that the creation of a tiered Internet would seriously limit that potential by giving the largest, wealthiest, and most established organizations and companies a dominant role on the Internet, to the disadvantage of individuals and smaller companies and organizations. Network neutrality rules could easily be crafted to protect the free market and free speech online while making allowances for adequate investment incentives."