Net Neutrality -- one last chance (Updated)

Congress, including quite a few Dems, voted in favor of the deceptively-named Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006, which would gut the concept of net neutrality and allow the big phone carriers to tax small sites out of existencce. (Thank god my representative, Brad Sherman, gave a thumb's down to this monstrosity.) The battle goes on to the Senate.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings, or so they say. I think that axiom derives from a some writer's vague memory of Die Walküre -- in which the overlord Wotan, not a pleasingly plump Brünnhilde, is the one who actually does the final bit of belting. Personally, I can hear both of 'em backstage right now, practicing their scales and getting ready to say Leb' wohl to the very concept of free speech.

What to do? Please follow the jump to read the rest of this piece. I have at least one brand new idea...

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

1. Art Brodsky is right:

The Bells control the inside game. They spent millions on TV ads, newspaper ads and, most important of all, lobbyists. Bell lobbyists are on the Hill every day, in every office of every member of Congress and Senator. Contrasted with that up-close-and-personal presence, an email petition with 800,000 names has no significance whatsoever. It is an abstraction. Sad, but true.

We can blog forever, and it won't make a difference, except as a vehicle to informing those who want to read about these important issues. If you want to make your voice heard, you have to do it in person. Not everyone can come to Washington, but every politician has to go home. You should find out when your House member or Senator has a town meeting and attend.

We must screech and annoy. But there's much more...

2. I'm going to propose something novel. Don't just screech at your senator. Screech at Google. Screech at Ebay. Screech at your ISP.

You may be wondering what the hell I'm talking about. After all, Google is on our side. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has gone to DC to do some personal arm-twisting. Why should we bug him?

I'll show you why. Go to Google. What do you see on most of the page? WHITE SPACE.

That design has been part of Google's charm. They have kept to a simple page layout that loads up with hummingbird rapidity. They would be foolish to change their interface.

Except in this instance. The current legislation threatens to change the very nature of the internet.

If Google were serious about stopping the threat to net neutrality, they could use that white space -- the most widely-travelled real estate on the internet -- to advertise the truth of the matter to hundreds of millions of net-surfers.

The good folks at Google could place a blurb on the front page which would tear to shreds all the falsehoods we've been hearing. Google could denounce as a LIAR any politician who makes the ludicrous claim that the preservation of net neutrality constitutes "government regulation." (That is the word we must use: LIAR.) The blurb could state that the carriers want to impose an added TAX on web content providers. (That's the other word we must use: TAX.)

Google could even put a form on their front page, allowing readers to send the following message to their senators: "Dear Senator: If you vote against net neutrality, I will not vote for you. Not under any circumstances."

That is the kind of sheer power Google could bring to this party, if the guys in charge of the company were serious.

So beg 'em to get serious.

How to do that? I don't know of a way to email Google. (If you do, please pass along the info.) But the company does have a phone number: (650) 253-0000.

Perhaps tonight, when your cel phone carrier allows you to make free calls, you may want to dial up that number and leave a short clear message: "Put an ad on your front page telling the public how to preserve net neautrality." Just those words. Then hang up. No need to debate with anyone.

If you don't have a cel phone, download Skype, which now allows you to make free calls. The interface takes a little getting used to, and you do need one of those cheapie headsets -- but remember, it's free. Just get the program up and running, then cut and paste this number -- +16502530000 -- into the little box at the bottom of the window, then hit the green "call" button. (For some reason, Skype insists that you use that dumb "plus" sign. Did I mention that it's free?)

So much for Google. How about Ebay?

Meg Whitman of Ebay, bless her heart, sent out a national email blast to Ebay members over the net neutrality issue. Yes. THAT is the nose-punch approach I'm talking about.

But it's not enough. Most people ignore that sort of email. Here's a tactic that cannot be ignored:

Ebay's main page is a fixed-width three-column design. There's plenty of room for a fourth column. Why not use that space to tell every single Ebay visitor the truth about net neutrality? Why not use that space to tell visitors how to contact their senators?

Right now, there's plenty of white space at the bottom of the Ebay front page. Ask 'em to put this space to good use!

Here's how to get the message to the Ebay folks. Go to this page...

http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_1_1_6.html?item=&dsturl=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.ebay.com%2Fhelp%2Fcontact_us%2F_base%2Findex.html&tier0=%5Bobject+Object%5D&tier1=result_1_1_6&continue=Continue+%3E#

...and hit "email us." Then send your message:

"Preserving net neutrality is of paramount importance. Please put information about this issue on the Ebay front page. Please give every visitor to your site a quick and easy way to contact his or her senator."

So much for Ebay. Anyone else you can yell at?

According to Alexa's ratings, the top sites in the United States (aside from Google and Ebay) are run by Yahoo, MySpace, Microsoft, Amazon, Craigslist, CNN, Go, Live, Wikipedia, Blogger (a Google affiliate, actually), IMDB, and so on. None of these guys must feel happy about the prospect of paying a massive extra tax to the carriers.

So why aren't they in this fight, in a big way? We need to put this message in front of every pair of eyeballs that gets anywhere near a computer screen.

3. Write to Kos and tell him that you will not buy any more of his damn t-shirts and coffee mugs (which aren't very well-designed, frankly) if he ever again takes ads from the bad guys. Message: "We're no longer debating with you. We're TELLING you."