AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: Markey introduces Net Neutrality Act

AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: Markey introduces Net Neutrality Act: "Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) threw down the gauntlet just moments ago, introducing the Network Neutrality Act of 2006 [full text HERE], which '[offers a] choice between favoring the broadband designs of a small handful of very large companies, and safeguarding the dreams of thousands of inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. This legislation is designed to save the Internet and thwart those who seek to fundamentally and detrimentally alter the Internet as we know it.'

In an unequivocal editorial today, the NY Times put it this way:

Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else.

The Times goes on to note that if the cable and telephone companies got their way, '[it] would be a financial windfall for Internet service providers, but a disaster for users, who could find their Web browsing influenced by whichever sites paid their service provider the most money.'"