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CMA Protest -- "AT&T: Bringing Us To Tiers", Downtown Chicago, May 24, 4pm
| May 12, 2006 |
| Posted by Mitchell | Entry 434 |
Join a Chicago Media Action Protest --
"AT&T: Bringing Us To Tiers"
At the intersection of Congress and
Federal, downtown Chicago, May 24, 4pm
AT&T and other phone companies are presently working hard to
establish a "tiered Internet", where websites and Internet-based video and
audio would go much faster for persons and corporations able to pay higher
fees, and much slower or not at all for everyone else.
If you
think this is like the Internet we have already, think again. Right now,
you have a substantial measure of control of what you see on the Internet
and how fast it comes to you. But you would lose that control of speed and
access to content under a tiered Internet.
One key to this forced
separate-and-unequal Internet is to destroy the Internet's first amendment
-- the guarantee of non-discrimination of content on the Internet, or what
some call "network neutrality".
A 2005 Supreme Court decision
opened the door to the destruction of network neutrality, and a fight in
Congress is raging now between the phone companies (and their allies in
Congress) and the growing number of Internet freedom advocates (across the
political spectrum, from all walks of life) over the future of the
Internet.
And that's not all. Related legislation under
consideration RIGHT NOW in Congress also threatens to eliminate community
access television and all local control over telephone and cable TV
franchising, and would likely escalate discriminatory redlining by phone
and cable corporations against low-income households and communities.
Plus, the fight also encompasses a growing list of scandals involving
corporate and government corruption, dangerous mergers, and complicity
with illegal NSA domestic spying.
If you use the Internet in any
way, or if you care about local control and democracy, this fight affects
you.
Start affecting it back.
Chicago Media Action, along with
organizers in Boston and New York City (and a number of other cities), are
planning a National Day of Media Outrage. As part
of this national day of action, CMA will stage
a protest and outreach effort:
The Event -- "AT&T: Bringing Us
To Tiers"
The Place -- Outside the AT&T / SBC building, at the
intersection of Congress Parkway and South Federal Street in downtown Chicago (just a block
south of the Library / State and Van Buren CTA station, immediately west
of the Harold Washington Library Center)
The Date and Time --
Wednesday, May 24, 4pm - 6pm
We encourage you to take part,
and learn more (while you still can) at these websites:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
http://www.saveaccess.org/
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/
You can address questions about the event to Chicago Media Action (email:
cma@chicagomediaaction.org; call toll free: 1-866-260-7198). Again, we
encourage you to attend and spread the word about this event and these
issues, and contact your elected officials - particularly U.S.
Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL).
After all, it's your Internet.
And it's your media. For now. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed on this
website are those of the individual members of Chicago Media
Action who authored them, and not necessarily those of the entire
membership of Chicago Media Action, nor of Chicago Media Action
as an organization.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
