Letter from Ebay

[Phil Lilley]

Interesting email. Don't know about any of you but I sure don't think anyone, including the gov't, should control the interent. What I mess they will make it.

Letter from Meg Whitman, President, eBay. ---

As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

Join me by clicking here -- http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/netneutrality -- to send a message to your representatives in Congress.

The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would allow them to divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two-lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington. Please join me by clicking here right now to send a message to your representatives in Congress before it is too late. You can make the difference.

Thank you for reading this note. I hope you'll make your voice heard today.

Sincerely,

Meg Whitman

President and CEO

eBay Inc.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Hmmm? I'm a member of E-Bay and have been for several years, but I didn't receive any e-mail?

[gonefishin]

I got the same letter today. It is not totally off the wall, there is a big power play going on right now.

[Phil Lilley]

The links are for real... no spoof. I actually got lucky seeing this one- I usually don't even look at ebay emails cause 99% are spoofs.

[Thom]

Below is an article from PC magazine which discusses the proposed legislation. Most Senators and congressmen are computer illiterate and rely on others to advise them. Guess who would influence their decisions. Wouldn't be us smallies.

It seems that the regulation would allow isp's to charge large companies for flooding the net and allow them to pass the charge on to clients. It would not affect the small users. It would bring about a two tiered system... one for large broadband usage and one for small users. this legislation narrowly was defeated in the Senate this session. Interesting it didn't get much press. Wonder if that could be that the owners of the media (GE Warner time life et al.) would be one of the benefactors of this legislation.

I agree with you Phil. I don't like the govt getting involved in regulation of the net that can be influenced by lobbist and big business. the web link to PC mag is below.

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2405p024...ontrol+internet