SaveTheInternet.com Coalition
PRESS ADVISORY
Monday, April 24, 2006
Contact:
Trevor Fitzgibbon, 202-246-5303
Alex Howe, Fenton Communications, 202.822.5200
Strange Bedfellows Unite to Save the Internet
"Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf joins Gun Owners of America,
librarians, consumer groups and others to announce
SavetheInternet.com Coalition
On Monday, diverse coalition launches national campaign to stop
Congress from gutting Network Neutrality -- the First Amendment of
the Internet
WASHINGTON - The SavetheInternet.com Coalition will hold a national
conference call Monday to announce a campaign to defend the free and
open Internet from a bill being voted on in the House of
Representatives beginning next week.
On Monday, April 24, at 1:00pm, Vint Cerf -- the "father of the
Internet" -- will join Gun Owners of America, Consumer Federation of
America, American Library Association, Public Knowledge, major public
interest groups and others to announce this diverse grassroots
coalition. The coalition is spearheaded by Free Press, a national,
nonpartisan group focused on media reform and Internet policy issues,
and the Web site is already up at www.SavetheInternet.com
Congress is currently rewriting our nation's telecom laws. The
SavetheInternet.com Coalition will mobilize public pressure to force
Congress to resist a multimillion dollar lobbying effort by Internet
providers like AT&T and Verizon to gut Network Neutrality, the
Internet's First Amendment.
"Network neutrality is the First Amendment of the Internet," said
Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press. "It ensures that the
public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest
corporate Web site by preventing companies like AT&T from rigging the
playing field for only the highest-paying sites and services. Net
neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic
innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online -- and
the public demands Congress not dismantle it."
Without Net Neutrality, issue organizations would essentially have to
pay protection money to dominant Internet providers or risk that
their Web sites were not as fully functional as corporate sites.
"Gun Owners of America opposes any attempt to limit or curtail
political speech," said Craig Fields, director of Internet operations
for Gun Owners of America. "Without statutory network neutrality,
there is nothing to prevent big telecom companies from injecting
political bias into the very skeleton of modern communications. If
the telecoms believe they can frame opposition to their power grab as
a liberal or anti-free-market attack, they are sadly mistaken."
WHAT: National conference call -- launch of SavetheInternet.com
Coalition's national campaign to protect Net Neutrality
WHEN: Monday, April 21, 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT
WHO:
Vinton Cerf, "Father of the Internet"
Craig Fields, Gun Owners of America
Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge
Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America
American Library Association
Charter members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition include:
Professors Larry Lessig of Stanford University and Tim Wu of Columbia
University ("Fathers of Net Neutrality"), Free Press, Gun Owners of
America, right-of-center Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds,
MoveOn.org Civic Action, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of
America, Public Knowledge, Common Cause, the American Library
Association, U.S. PIRG.
As early as next week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is
expected to vote on the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and
Enhancement Act of 2006," a major overhaul of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996. The current version of the bill -- sponsored by Rep. Joe
Barton (R-Texas), Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering
(R-Miss.), and Rep. Bobby Rush -- includes no meaningful protections
for network neutrality.
"The future of the free, open and innovative Internet we have all
enjoyed through the years is not guaranteed," said Gigi Sohn,
president of Public Knowledge, a public interest group working on
technology and intellectual property issues. "If the bill before the
House Commerce Committee gives control of the Internet to the
telephone and cable companies, the Internet we have come to
appreciate could well cease to exist, and it will be almost
impossible to get it back."
For more information, visit www.SavetheInternet.com
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