About ten+ years ago, I read an article about a state college in New York which was one of the first to experiment with wireless digital communications over HAM frequencies. I'm sorry that I don't have the source readily available (maybe someone can jump in here).
This affirms the idea that when there is both a will and a means, corporations cannot limit or exclude something of great importance to the public.
Articles like this should be distributed widely since most violations to all things democratic are done slowly, methodically and under our noses while the public is kept ill-informed.
Anyone thinking of informing the public on a large scale, will be met with formidable resistance from elements of the American propaganda machine such as FOX.
Looking at the bigger picture, I'm becoming optimistic as various democratic movements gain strength and the far right
broadens there list of anti-Americans to include Pulitzer Prize winners. It won't be long before they hate everybody and look even more ridiculous in the process.
Mike
Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Mike
Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/25/a_democratic_internet.php
A Democratic Internet
Art Brodsky
April 25, 2006
Art Brodsky is communications director for Public Knowledge , a
public interest group working at the intersection of information and
technology policy.
Right now, you're reading TomPaine.com because you want to, and
because you can. Those two principles have been the reason the
Internet as we know it has been so successful for almost 20 years.
The Internet as we know it provides infinite choice to those who use
it, and easy access to customers and consumers for those who have a
service to provide. No printing presses are needed, no buying of
paper, no distribution. Those major expenses, which for years had to
be borne by publications, have all disappeared with the World Wide
Web. All TomPaine.com -or any website-needs (technically speaking, of
course) are computers, servers and access to the Internet.
The result has been the most unique explosion of creativity in
history. This was all made possible because the Internet was open to
anyone who wanted to go looking for interesting material or who
wanted to create interesting material, and because anyone with a good
idea could put it out there and see what happens. Google happens.
Yahoo happens. YouTube happens.
At the heart of what the Internet used to be was a law, the
Communications Act, which had in it the basic principle of what is
called "common carriage." This means that telephone companies had no
control over which traffic flowed through their networks. The network
was merely the carrier between the two ends. The ability of people
creating text or music or video as either consumer or company was
enhanced because the network in the middle had no say about how the
material would be handled.
Now, that could all be lost, destroyed by a coalition of the entire
telecom industry. AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and all the
assorted smaller telecom companies want to insert themselves between
you and where you go on the Web, and between service providers and
what they put online. The Bell Behemoths and their Cable Companions
can do this because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
decided last year that high-speed broadband services like the Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL) provided by telephone companies or cable modem
services from the telephone companies aren't subject to any
regulations.
The FCC decision eliminated the rules that allowed users in the
dial-up era to go online without any interference or influence from
telephone companies about where users go on the Web or how well
services would work. Under the new non-regulatory regime, anything is
possible. Before, it was up to the consumer to determine how much to
spend on Internet access, a little for dial-up, more for broadband.
It was never a choice between a service that worked better or worse
at the discretion of the telephone company. As we enter the
high-speed Internet age, it will be a game without rules, with both
consumers and service providers at the mercy of the telecom giants.
The Big Boys want to keep it that way, and are working the
congressional game with their usual combination of expertise and
brute force to make sure it happens. On the other side is a coalition
of public interest groups and non-profits bolstered by a coalition of
large, but very inexperienced, online companies. Yahoo, Google and
Amazon may be the darlings of the e-commerce world, but they are
rookies when it comes to playing the Hill. The venue for this contest
will be the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday,
April 26, when the competing visions of the Internet will collide.
[snip]
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