Support Net Neutrality!

[rita1075]

Dear all LibriVox Members,
If we don't act, and the net neutrality is put in jeopardy, all the sites that every LVER relies on, such as Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, Internet Archive (and possibly, worst of all) our dear LibriVox website could be in danger! Today, many activist organizations are urging Internet users to send letters and make phone calls to the U.S. FCC and both houses of Congress to preserve net neutrality. I already sent letters to the FCC through a campaign organized by DemandProgress.org. If you love LibriVox, the public domain, and the Free and Open Internet, please do your part today by clicking the link below and sending your own message of support for the preservation of Net Neutrality!

https://www.battleforthenet.com/netroots/?utm_source=demandprogress

Here, I paste the message I sent to the FCC:
“I am a blind woman living in South Korea, who majored in English in college. I urge the U.S. FCC, members of the U.S. Congress, executives of the telecom companies, and President Trump to stop trying to kill The Net Neutrality. In one of our American literature classes in college, we read a poem called “Let America be America again”, written by the famous African-American poet Langston Hughes. I would like to paraphrase Mr. Hughes's poem to urge you to preserve Net Neutrality: “Let The Internet be The Internet for all!” I strongly support Net Neutrality! The free and open Internet enabled, and enables me, a totally blind woman, to graduate from college and be a functioning member of society. The Internet should be free and open to all people, not to just a few people on the top 1%. Let the Internet be the place where all can compete equally and share our cultural and scientific treasures and achievements regardless of one's skin color, country of origin, race, mother tongue, income, network speeds or political views. LET THE INTERNET BE THE INTERNET FOR ALL!!!”
I plea to all LV members to participate in the campaign to preserve Net Neutrality by following the link below and sending your own message to the FCC. Let us not make a shameful history by our inaction and thus letting the top 1% subjugate and colonize our Internet! In the poem “Let America be America Again” which I quoted above, Mr. Hughes repeatedly writes: “(America was never America to me.)” Mr. Hughes is talking about the wide gap between the American Founding Fathers' ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the painful reality for African Americans and immigrants which was dominated by slavery, abuse and exploitation. Now, if we don't act, the top 1% could break the Internet! We never, ever should make ourselves say to our children in the future, “The Internet was never an open Internet to me after July 12, 2017”. Please, all LVERS, do your part today. LET THE INTERNET BE THE INTERNET FOR ALL!!!

https://www.battleforthenet.com/netroots/?utm_source=demandprogress

Keep fighting!
Thanks,
Eunah Choi

[rita1075]

If you look at the front page of the Project Gutenberg website, you'll see a message encouraging all visitors to send messages of support for Net Neutrality to the FCC.
Let's unite, and defend the free and open Internet!

[annise]

I've edited the first post to conform with LV policies , but left the message because it is important for us all

Anne

[Peter Why]

Sent today:

Sir/Madam

The FCC's Net Neutrality Rules are important to my life. I've spent over ten years in Librivox producing voice recordings of classic books to go into the public domain and, before that, years working to put public domain texts onto the gutenberg site. I understand that suggested changes in legislation may lead to this charitable work being downgraded on the internet, when priority is given to areas of the internet under control of a group of large companies.

Apparently Chairman Pai will be involved in this decision (and in enabling ISPs to block access to areas of the internet whose contents are perfectly legal but disapproved of by someone, or not profitable). I feel that his position is rendered untenable because of bias, as he has formerly acted for Verizon, one of the companies pressing for paid improved access to the internet (and degraded access for others).

I urge you to resist these changes.

Thank you.