Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

Well, Comcast did not take too much time to “lick its wounds” after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a detailed plan this week to reassert authority over the Internet. CNET published an FAQ concerning the FCC plan, which was released by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Genachowski’s statement came only hours after two senior Democratic politicians  sent a letter (PDF) to him saying that imposing Net Neutrality regulations on broadband providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon is “essential.”

Joseph Waz, who is the Comcast senior vice president for external affairs, said in Palo Alto, (with regard to federal regulation) “what could be applied once you’ve opened the door is scary.”

Wait a minute! A “free and open” Internet is essentially what we have NOW and (some of us) are trying to PRESERVE! I am much less concerned about an empowered FCC preserving principles of Net Neutrality (1, 2) than I am about conditions changing after a “special six-month introductory offer” by Comcast!

This is not a case of “The Lady, or the Tiger.” This is a case of examining the HISTORY of what has essentially been a “free and open” Internet, vs. the HISTORY of the behavior of large telecommunications companies. I think that the record is pretty clear (… and it’s the record that telecommunications companies CHOSE to establish).

Comcast’s Waz offers the further diversion of comparing the FCC plan to China’s policy of Internet censorship (for examples of China’s daily censorship of Google services, look HERE):

“It’s kind of hard to say to China, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.'” While strict Net neutrality regulations are hardly the same as censorship and surveillance, he said, “all of us have to be sensitive to the fact that other nations are waiting for the green light to get more involved.”

Please.

Some of us do not “cave” to fear. (That is actually what really frightens THOSE WHO DO!)

After offering us the specter of a “tiger” behind “Door Number 1,” Comcast’s Waz offers us ANOTHER specter of a “dragon” behind “Door Number 2!”

One way for “average people” to become involved in the fight to PRESERVE Internet freedom is through efforts like Save The Internet.

The future of the Internet “as we know it” is at stake.

(Note added May 15, 2010: According to SaveTheInternet.com, a grassroots organization supporting Net Neutrality:

“Earlier this week, corporate front group Americans for Prosperity — the same group that compared health care reform to the Holocaust — announced a $1.4 million advertising blitz to stop the FCC’s ‘government takeover of the Internet.’

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), whose single largest donor in this election cycle is Comcast Corporation, echoed the theme in a letter to President Obama, calling recent policies proposed by the FCC a “government takeover of yet another sector of our economy.” And lawyers for Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable prophesied that recently proposed policy changes by the FCC would mark a ‘radical and unlawful’ move that ‘should set off alarm bells in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street, and everywhere in between.’

What’s behind the fear-mongering? The Federal Communications Commission recently proposed to modernize its policymaking framework for broadband, closing a loophole first created by Michael Powell, FCC Chairman during the Bush Administration.”

Read the entire article for a more complete view.)

(Note added June 14, 2010: Just to let you know where this argument “wound up.” It wound up “off the radar.” According to CNET:

“Longtime political rivals including AT&T, Google, Comcast, Verizon, and Microsoft, announced Tuesday they had joined together to form a technical advisory group to ‘develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience,’ including applications and devices.”

“The formal name of the effort is the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), which will be chaired by Dale Hatfield of the University of Colorado at Boulder, a former chief technologist of the Federal Communications Commission.”

CNET notes that this result was “perhaps inevitable,” but it did not sit well with the group Free Press, which responded that “this or any other voluntary effort is not a substitute for the government setting basic rules of the road for the Internet” and “there must be a separate FCC rulemaking process.” The group, Public Knowledge, said that BITAG is “not a substitute for FCC rules and enforcement procedures.”

Well, most individuals (by their lack of participation) get the kind of government that they deserve, and most corporations get the kind of government that they pay for.

Net Neutrality is too essential to our fundamental freedoms in America to let it slip away from sight.)

-Bill at

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