{"id":515,"date":"2015-02-01T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=515"},"modified":"2015-02-01T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T21:10:09","slug":"theyre-trying-to-break-the-internet-again-and-title-ii-is-still-the-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/02\/theyre-trying-to-break-the-internet-again-and-title-ii-is-still-the-solution.html","title":{"rendered":"They’re trying to break the Internet again, and Title II is still the solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les hommes de g\u00e9nie sont des m\u00e9t\u00e9ores destin\u00e9s \u00e0 br\u00fbler pour \u00e9clairer leur si\u00e8cle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Men of genius are shooting stars\u00a0destined to burn to light their century.<\/p>\n

Napoleon Bonaparte<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Once again, the Battle for the Net is at a critical juncture.<\/p>\n

Please don’t turn away from this post. This concerns your<\/em> Internet, your one historic refuge from powerful government and corporations.<\/h2>\n

The Internet is at war. Although it is winning, it is still at risk\u00a0of being\u00a0suffocated\u00a0by special interest groups hellbent on curtailing democracy.\u00a0If you don’t stop them, they’ll slow\u00a0your Internet to a crawl. If the Internet isn’t protected by the law, cable companies will be able to create “fast lanes”, making the Internet go the way\u00a0the television networks already are: an utterly useless medium\u00a0to anyone but that\u00a0bunch of super-rich, 0.01% scumbags who get all the\u00a0attention.<\/p>\n

Big cable companies are hiring their natural allies, members of the right-wing lunatic fringe, to protect their desire to slow the Internet down and serve the interests of those\u00a0giant\u00a0companies at the expense of everyday American consumers and smaller businesses. Their story\u00a0now is that Title II reclassification of the Internet in the United States, which President Obama and the vast majority of the American public support, will result in greater taxes on consumers. Some big morons on the blogosphere<\/a> have even bought this sugar-coated poison pill and thus hired out their bodies and souls to corporate greed. Whether or not they are being paid by Comcast to do this performance, or just idiots who have no comprehension of the facts, is irrelevant. What they are saying is a blatant lie. An example of the ads that have targeted lawmakers and constituents, as shown on callcomcast.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To prevent this humongous\u00a0lie from gaining more recognition and acceptance\u00a0among lawmakers, Internet freedom activists have called upon the general public to bombard the industry shills and their political puppets in Congress with the truth. Title II reclassification, as supported by the President, is the only way to go to protect the Internet as a public necessity.<\/p>\n

From callcomcast.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Comcast\u2019s lobbyists are spreading lies to destroy the Internet. Stop them.<\/p>\n

Comcast and their lobbying group NCTA<\/a> have lost the debate, so now they’re blanketing Washington DC with advertisements that lie<\/a>, to trick Congress into killing net neutrality. We can’t let them subvert democracy.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Call them now!<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You don’t have to\u00a0take it from Team Internet activists, the experts\u00a0on Internet freedom, or me. The reality is confirmed by none other than the writer of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden<\/a>:<\/h2>\n

The claim:<\/b> If the FCC reclassifies broadband Internet access as a \u201ccommon carrier\u201d under Title II, consumers could be stuck with new taxes by state and local governments.<\/p>\n

In a word: Baloney.<\/i><\/p>\n

The facts<\/b>:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Net Neutrality is not going to invalidate the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA).
    \n<\/b>My colleagues and I knew people would try to tax the Internet if they could. So in ITFA Congress broadly defined the term \u201cInternet access.\u201d It is illegal<\/i> to tax the internet. Under Title II or otherwise. The FCC could define the Internet as a series of tubes and ITFA would still prohibit taxes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The \u201cgrandfather clause\u201d in ITFA will not allow cities to suddenly open the Internet up to telecom taxes.<\/b> If the FCC reclassifies broadband Internet, it will not change if states taxed Internet access before 1998. The FCC has broad authority, but it cannot rewrite history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So there it is. The choice is either to trust the law and the elected officials entrusted to maintain\u00a0it, or to trust the promises of the lobbying group NCTA, which represents the very cable companies whose greedy designs on the Internet have led to this need for stronger laws protecting its openness and its tradition as an\u00a0engine of the alternative media.<\/p>\n

    \n

    By\u00a0Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Les hommes de g\u00e9nie sont des m\u00e9t\u00e9ores destin\u00e9s \u00e0 br\u00fbler pour \u00e9clairer leur si\u00e8cle. Men of genius are shooting stars\u00a0destined to burn to light their century. Napoleon Bonaparte Once again, the Battle for the Net is at a critical juncture. Please don’t turn away from this post. This concerns your Internet, your one historic refuge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[353,313,127,153,439,66,40,45,15],"tags":[301,448,450,444,449,445,446,443,440,447,442,441],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censorship","category-entertainment","category-journalism","category-lordre-2","category-net-neutrality","category-politics-2","category-publishing","category-techno-progressivism","category-us","tag-barack-obama","tag-battle-for-the-net","tag-call-comcast","tag-fcc","tag-fight-for-the-future","tag-internet-tax","tag-internet-tax-freedom-act-itfa","tag-ncta","tag-net-neutrality-2","tag-open-internet","tag-ron-wyden","tag-title-ii-reclassification"],"yoast_head":"\nThey're trying to break the Internet again, and Title II is still the solution - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/02\/theyre-trying-to-break-the-internet-again-and-title-ii-is-still-the-solution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They're trying to break the Internet again, and Title II is still the solution - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Les hommes de g\u00e9nie sont des m\u00e9t\u00e9ores destin\u00e9s \u00e0 br\u00fbler pour \u00e9clairer leur si\u00e8cle. Men of genius are shooting stars\u00a0destined to burn to light their century. Napoleon Bonaparte Once again, the Battle for the Net is at a critical juncture. Please don’t turn away from this post. This concerns your Internet, your one historic refuge…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/02\/theyre-trying-to-break-the-internet-again-and-title-ii-is-still-the-solution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-01T23:00:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-01T21:10:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.callcomcast.org\/images\/screenshot_annotated_nocaption.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. 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