media policy

On Tuesday, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to order Comcast to stop blocking peer-to-peer sharing on the Internet in the name of network management. While the ruling seems small, it has big implications. The basic message is that the FCC cannot enforce Network Neutrality, which is the principle that our corporate Internet Service Providers cannot block content or treat different pieces of content differently. The concern is that without network neutrality in place, companies like Comcast and Verizon will decide what we see, hear and read on the Internet, in much the same way that Fox News (The New Corporation) and NBC (Viacom... soon to be Comcast) do with our TV.

MMP is spending the week in Washington DC for the annual meetings of our partner and ally organizations through the Media and Democracy Coalition along with the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net).

Some of those folks brought the media, art and cultural agenda to the hill in meetings with the Obama Administration. Read the full story over at the Washington Post of the amazing work to make sure the arts are part of our national picture.

Today, in cities across the country people are standing up and saying they will not sit silently as their connection with the world is cut off.