ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 15, Number 61
Date: June 9, 2006

In This Issue: House Votes Against Net Neutrality, Threatening Right To Equal Access

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE), a wide-ranging telecommunications bill that includes provisions that would endanger the rights of Internet users to access all online content equally and severely limit opportunities for libraries, schools, colleges, and non-profit groups to access digital-age benefits and innovations. Prior to passing the bill, the House VOTED DOWN in a disappointing vote (269 to 152) an amendment to COPE proposed by Rep. Ed Markey and others - an amendment whose inclusion ALA strongly supported - which would have strengthened network neutrality within the bill. 

In a statement, ALA President Michael Gorman said, "The "COPE" bill allows big telecommunications companies to give preferential service to those content providers able to pay higher fees while marginalizing the smaller, less popular or less lucrative Internet content providers.  By allowing preferred services, the COPE bill would allow telephone, cable and ISP-gatekeepers to discriminate against certain content, making it much more difficult for users to find the information they seek."

Grassroots library advocates are thanked for their strong and fast support in this quickly changing environment. Stand by for additional messages to the Senate on S. 2658, likely next week.

For more information on this issue, please see yesterday's ALAWON (Volume 15, Number 60) by clicking here: http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/washnews/2006ndx/netneuthouse.htm

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ALA Washington Office, 1615 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., First Floor, Washington, D.C. 20009-2520; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff ; Contact the Washington Office: alawash@alawash.org ; Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Don Essex, Melanie Anderson, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. Andrew Bridges, Communications Specialist. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.