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Net Neutrality and the eBay Community: A Call to Action

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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.
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 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,

http://emailpics3.ebay.com/977860018/images/meg_signature_200-1.jpg

Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.

[CENTER]Here are the two letters it sends:

Quote:

Letter to: Senator Mike DeWine; Senator George V. Voinovich;
5/30/2006

The Honorable ______________
Address
City, State Zip

RE: Please Support Network Neutrality

Dear _____________:

Note: The recipient's name and address will be automatically added to your letter

As your constituent and as one of the world's more than one billion Internet users, I am writing to request that you support the open Internet by cosponsoring S. 2917, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act, to create "network neutrality."

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. It breeds innovation and is a resource for millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Regrettably, without network neutrality legislation, the Internet is likely to become a two-tiered system - where those who can pay a tax to have access to consumers will have access to a fast lane and the rest will crawl along in the slow lane. Innovation on the Internet will suffer, consumer choices will decrease, and entrepreneurship will diminish.

The concept of network neutrality protects the open Internet that we all enjoy. Without these protections, the Internet will no longer be an open and competitive marketplace and network operators will direct consumers to the content and services that are provided by those who can pay premium prices.

We need legislation to create rules of the road to prevent discrimination and to maintain the open architecture of the Internet. To protect consumer choice, innovation, competitiveness, and small business, I hope you will support network neutrality.

Sincerely,

Letter to: Representative Sherrod Brown;
5/30/2006

The Honorable ______________
Address
City, State Zip

Quote:

RE: Please Support Network Neutrality

Dear _____________:

Note: The recipient's name and address will be automatically added to your letter

As your constituent and as one of the world's more than one billion Internet users, I am writing to request that you support the open Internet by cosponsoring HR 5417, The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, to create "network neutrality."

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. It breeds innovation and is a resource for millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Regrettably, without network neutrality legislation, the Internet is likely to become a two-tiered system - where those who can pay a tax to have access to consumers will have access to a fast lane and the rest will crawl along in the slow lane. Innovation on the Internet will suffer, consumer choices will decrease, and entrepreneurship will diminish.

The concept of network neutrality protects the open Internet that we all enjoy. Without these protections, the Internet will no longer be an open and competitive marketplace and network operators will direct consumers to the content and services that are provided by those who can pay premium prices.

We need legislation to create rules of the road to prevent discrimination and to maintain the open architecture of the Internet. To protect consumer choice, innovation, competitiveness, and small business, I hope you will support network neutrality.

Sincerely,

[/CENTER]

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@Justin,

The above is a letter I recieved today and I wanted to post it here for discussion.

The internet is something I discovered in 1997 and I wish it would have been sooner. Prior to that I had never been on the internet. The first place I went was Ebay.

Now there is a lot of information on the net. Good info, bad, sick... you name it... do a search and it will be found. For whatever it's worth, the internet is still in it's infancy. As I've personally seen it grow and learn to use it more and more, I'm realizing how important it is to have in this day and age.

The internet has broken down the walls that once divided countries. The internet is bridging the gap in human relations which allow us to do more business online. It's a huge deal and it's important that we keep it around and make it a level playing ground.

I could go on and on but I won't.

What do you think and feel free to comment on the Ebay thing.

0 Replies

@Justin,

Letter to: Senator Mike DeWine; Senator George V. Voinovich;
5/30/2006

The Honorable ______________
Address
City, State Zip

RE: Please Support Network Neutrality

Dear _____________:

Note: The recipient's name and address will be automatically added to your letter

As your constituent and as one of the world's more than one billion Internet users, I am writing to request that you support the open Internet by cosponsoring S. 2917, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act, to create "network neutrality."

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. It breeds innovation and is a resource for millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Regrettably, without network neutrality legislation, the Internet is likely to become a two-tiered system - where those who can pay a tax to have access to consumers will have access to a fast lane and the rest will crawl along in the slow lane. Innovation on the Internet will suffer, consumer choices will decrease, and entrepreneurship will diminish.

The concept of network neutrality protects the open Internet that we all enjoy. Without these protections, the Internet will no longer be an open and competitive marketplace and network operators will direct consumers to the content and services that are provided by those who can pay premium prices.

We need legislation to create rules of the road to prevent discrimination and to maintain the open architecture of the Internet. To protect consumer choice, innovation, competitiveness, and small business, I hope you will support network neutrality.

Sincerely,

Letter to: Representative Sherrod Brown;
5/30/2006

The Honorable ______________
Address
City, State Zip

RE: Please Support Network Neutrality

Dear _____________:

Note: The recipient's name and address will be automatically added to your letter

As your constituent and as one of the world's more than one billion Internet users, I am writing to request that you support the open Internet by cosponsoring HR 5417, The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, to create "network neutrality."

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. It breeds innovation and is a resource for millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Regrettably, without network neutrality legislation, the Internet is likely to become a two-tiered system - where those who can pay a tax to have access to consumers will have access to a fast lane and the rest will crawl along in the slow lane. Innovation on the Internet will suffer, consumer choices will decrease, and entrepreneurship will diminish.

The concept of network neutrality protects the open Internet that we all enjoy. Without these protections, the Internet will no longer be an open and competitive marketplace and network operators will direct consumers to the content and services that are provided by those who can pay premium prices.

We need legislation to create rules of the road to prevent discrimination and to maintain the open architecture of the Internet. To protect consumer choice, innovation, competitiveness, and small business, I hope you will support network neutrality.

Sincerely,

0 Replies

@Justin,

Quote:

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.

For some time now I have been expecting something like this to become of the Internet.
Up until now most of the sites were free to use because of the fierce competition, but that was never going to last forever.
Sooner or late the bubble has to burst; the infrastructure has to be paid for somehow, lest the investors flee.

What an irony then for Meg Whitman to pose as the complainant, hardly as if eBay is notorious for the sort of free to access provision of siblings such a google.com

Does she have the clout to turn the tide?

Don't bet your life on it.

Market forces.

--- RH.

0 Replies

@Justin,

Once more...the wealthiest 10% get to control 90% of the wealth...

Or at least charge a fee.

2 Replies

@Aristoddler,

Now thats reality for ya!

0 Replies

@Aristoddler,

Aristoddler wrote:

Once more...the wealthiest 10% get to control 90% of the wealth...
Or at least charge a fee.

As a matter of fact it is more like one percent controlling 99 percent.

They're called "bankers".

eBay and Paypal is in effect, essentially, a scheme to avoid the regulation that the traditional methods were subject to.

Try to find out exactly how they are accountable to who and you'll see what I mean

--- RH.

0 Replies

@Justin,

Ebay making money from people selling stuff...then making money from people buying the same stuff for using their PayPal accounts...sounds like a Monopoly to me.

If they were a convenience store; it would be called double-taxing, and they would be charged with fraud.

0 Replies

@Justin,

Instead of charging for the cost of an auction listing, they charge a percentage of the auction price because of the pretext to provide protection.

It is literally a protection racket.

When the protection fails and you want to claim for compensation, then you get to see a bit more of the actual truth of that.

The UK eBay office, Hotham House, is just down the road from me, which means that our Local Council is supposed to regulate their trading, and from what I have gathered that job thus falls to but one local Trading Standards Officer, while the Police lack as much as an officer, let alone a department especially assigned to deal with them.

Enough said?

Nudge nudge, wink wink.

-- RH.

0 Replies

@Justin,

A little update about eBay and my wife's latest experience there...this should shed a little light on what eBay is becoming.

After bidding and buying 8 items for minimal costs, and light S&H charges (highest S&H charge was $19.80 for a dress from China) she bid a dollar on a dress from Ohio, and assumed the S&H would be $20 or less, since as far as we can remember from 8th grade geography; Ohio is somewhat closer to Canada than China is.
This tanget has a point.
The bidding ended, and she accepted the deal.
Then she was invoiced for $75 for the dress, and $120 for S&H.
Obviously, she refused to pay, and and was incidentally harassed by the seller, and received negative remarks against her perfect record.

eBay did nothing about this blatant misleading seller, nor did they care.
Some sellers who make a living off of eBay buyer addicts are notorious for posting a listing for a minimal fee, and doubling or tripling the S&H to circumvent paying eBay the proper charge, so they can pay outl ess commission, and make more money.

However, they do not list the S&H fee in their listing.

Fair? Not really.
eBay gets less money, which is fine by me, but the buyers get scammed for their efforts.

There's nothing I can do about it, but I certainly won't be using eBay anytime soon.

0 Replies

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