(Sayhar has written a couple of great pieces about the Brodsky bill and net neutrality over at Rochester Turning. I asked if he would cross post and he has agreed. Thanks, Sayhar. - promoted by phillip anderson)
Most of the bill is concerned with giving great cheap broadband to most every New Yorker. I know it's a bit cliched to say it, but this really could be a modern-day analogue to the Erie Canal. Like the Erie Canal, however, it has to be used for the public good, and not for corporate short-sighted interest.
To that end, the bill also has Net Neutrality provisions. Let those good folks at the Save The Internet Coalition explain the concept:
National ISPs (like Verizon) can block your access to national sites (like Google), and stop any exciting new entrepreneur that threatens their grip on power.
Net Neutrality can affect you personally. Without it, there is no way to stop a rich local businessman from bribing roadrunner into censoring your competing website. For that matter, if we piss off the local Republican Party too much, they could bribe local ISPs to stop you all from accessing Rochester Turning.
Net Neutrality is integral to the original design and vision of the internet. Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the net, even went to testify to congress on the issue. Every "techy/nerdy" person agrees: Net Neutrality is, and has been a good idea.
For practically everyone across New York State, supporting this bill is a no-brainer. Through a carefully made package of incentives, everyone gets modern broadband, Telecom companies get big contracts, and everyone is forced to play fair, thanks to Net Neutrality.
Now, this bill is even more of a no-brainer for upstate, where modern broadband will catapult us into a prime position for companies across the US who want a robust internet architecture, combined with our low real estate costs, and access to a highly educated workforce straight out of our great Universities.
This bill makes sure that Net Neutrality is enforced in New York, so at least the Telcos don't screw you over. It'll set the "gold standard" of a Bill for every other state in the Union. Therefore, some companies will try to destroy it before the next session of the legislature, to make sure this "dangerously excellent idea" never sees the light of day.
We have to make sure they don't get away with it. Call the Governor at 518.474.8390 and tell him to support the Brodsky Bill. If Spitzer knows how strong our support for this bill is, he'll try to watch over it.
He's already on our side, he just needs to know we support him. Remember when Mr. Spitzer wrote this?
Net neutrality embodies the principle of open access and nondiscriminatory treatment of all internet users and content providers. Net neutrality has made the internet a powerful promoter of public discourse and commercial exchange, affording to users throughout all parts of the nation and the world and unlimited array of information, news, opinion and entertainment. Net neutrality has also fostered robust competition by content providers, without regard to ownership of the backbone facilities over which Internet traffic travels.
If you want to learn more about the bill, you can read quite a lot about it at The Albany Project.
If you want to get into the politics and so forth of Net Neutrality and related internet policies, the new website OpenLeft has an intriguing ongoing project on the issue.
