Re: HR 1542, rolling back open access for the Big 4

[Joseph S D Yao <jsdy@tux.org>]

On Wed, May 16, 2001 at 12:46:10PM -0700, David Wolfskill wrote:
> >Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 11:00:41 -0700 (PDT)
> >From: Hodge Podge <nicole@unixgirl.com>
> 
> > I have been told that this is a Hoax
> > That that bill # is not for something like this.
> 
> From
> http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d107:69:./temp/~bdXShy::|/bss/d107query.html|
> (sorry about the weirdness of the URL, but it does appear to work for
> me, at least):
> 
> H.R.1542 
> Sponsor: Rep Tauzin, W. J. (Billy) (introduced 4/24/2001) 
> Latest Major Action: 4/30/2001 House committee/subcommittee actions 
> Title: To deregulate the Internet and high speed data services, and for
> other purposes.
> 
> [And the page has links to additional information about the bill
> itself.  Finding it was "interesting", in some sense of the word.]
> 
> Of course, there *have* been urban legends about various parts of the US
> government doing things that would be likely to impair the use of the
> Internet.  However, this does not appear to be such an urban legend.

Here in Washington DC, the Baby Bells are sponsoring ads scoring AT&T
for wanting to keep a cable-Internet monopoly, and AT&T is sponsoring
ads scoring the Baby Bells for wanting to monopolize the Internet when
they are already monopolizing local telephone service.  Rather curious.
Given who they are, I believe neither of them - and in fact, when I sat
down to write about this, I realized that I don't remember which of them
is for Tauzin-Dingell and which against!  (I think AT&T is against a
change.)

I think we are going to have to (*ugh*) read the bill, and find out what
it says.  Finding out what it MEANS will be even harder.  What's that
recent quote, "Look for the money"?  Unless someone can find an unbiased
commentator.

-- 
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** Joe Yao				jsdy@tux.org - Joseph S. D. Yao
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