Strange Bedfellows

Imagine, if you will, a critically important issue that caused a diverse group of organizations to join together. Organizations so different that you would be used to seeing them at odds with each other on almost ever single topic... except this one. Wouldn't that be interesting?

What could possibly be so important that an internet phone company, a fundamentalist Christian organization, a social progressive website, consumer advocates, a privacy mavin, and a pro-gun lobby, would all agree on one thing?

You can put down the fork and stop imagining. The answers is net neutrality.

Skype, the Christian Coalition, MoveOn.Org, the Consumer's Union, Lawrence Lessig, Gun Owners of America and countless others have been trying to get congress to reject the greedy plans of Time-Warner, Comcast, AT&T, and BellSouth.

And last night they failed, as the badly named House of Representatives passed the COPE Act without the Net Neutrality provision.

Some activists say that there is a better chance of getting a Net Neutrality amendment passed in the Senate, but considering last night's overwhelming defeat, I can see which way the wind is blowing on this issue. He who has the gold makes the rules.

So prepare yourself for some very unpleasant changes in the next two years.

If you are a gamer, be prepared to be squeezed by your cable company for higher rates for the same bandwidth.

If you are a religious group, fear the fact that a private organization can degrade the access to your web sites while they give priority access to the web sites of other religions.

If you are poor and live in the inner-city, don't expect the phone company to offer you those fancy new services they've been promising.

If you are a local community activist, congress just erased the remaining requirements for community oversight of phone and cable companies.

If you are an inventor of an internet-enabled device or protocol or software, you'd better hope the phone and cable companies really like you, because they can shut you down. Any. Time. They. Want.

If you are using an internet phone service not provided by your local phone or cable company, well, you are just totally and royally screwed. (My prediction: Skype stock will totally tank in six months and the company will go bankrupt in a year.)