PETITIONING TO PROTECT INTERNET FREEDOM— OSPIRG’s Laura Etherton delivers a stack of letters and petitions to support Internet freedom to Sen. Ron Wyden at an October news event at Powell’s Books in Portland. Photo: Tom Oliver

On Oct. 18, OSPIRG’s Laura Etherton participated in a news conference with Sen. Ron Wyden, large and small business owners, and labor leaders to call on Congress to protect Network Neutrality—the endangered principle that ensures all Web sites and services are treated equally.

Big telephone and cable companies like AT&T, Qwest and Comcast have spent millions lobbying Congress to eliminate Net Neutrality, the longstanding principle that prevents Internet service providers from discriminating against content or services traveling over their wires based on which companies pay them the most.

“If the big phone and cable companies succeed in taking over the Internet, content from public interest organizations, small companies, political movements, independent artists, filmmakers and musicians would be relegated to traveling on slower lanes,” said Etherton, “ The Internet should work for everyone, not just for the big telephone and cable companies. As the debate continues, we urge Congress to listen to the public and preserve Net Neutrality.”

The event took place at Powell’s Books in Portland, and involved representatives of Google, Yahoo!, E-Bay, EasyStreet Online Service, American Federation of Musicians, Local 99, the Oregon Alliance to Reform Media and others. OSPIRG’s Laura Etherton spoke at the event and delivered a stack of more than 20,000 petitions from Oregon residents supporting Net Neutrality
as part of the SavetheInternet.com coalition.

Congress was considering a major overhaul of the nation’s telecommunications laws (H.R. 5252) that failed to protect Net Neutrality. In 2006, Sen. Wyden placed a hold on this legislation unless clear language was included in the bill to protect Net Neutrality. Wyden also co-sponsored the bipartisan Net Neutrality measure by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).

Net Neutrality is supported by a diverse, growing coalition of big and small businesses, unions, educators, thousands of bloggers and every major consumer group in the country. More than 750 organizations from across the political spectrum have come together as the SavetheInternet.com Coalition.

In addition to OSPIRG and PIRG organizations across the country, the coalition includes Free Press, the Christian Coalition, MoveOn, Consumers Union, Gun Owners of America, ACLU and the American Library Association. SavetheInternet.com has collected more than 1.2 million petition signatures nationwide.