Thursday rally aims to 'save the Internet'

Anne Broache posts on News.com's Politics blog about a rally to save net neutrality, featuring Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Moby, Thursday in Washington. Sponsored by the Save the Internet Coalition, the rally takes place at the Cannon House Office Building at 1 pm and is billed as a forum for promoting "Internet freedom" and protesting "corporate takeover." A growing number of musicians are joining the effort, STIC says.

Markey is one of the authors of an 11-page bill that, among other things, would bar broadband providers from blocking, impairing, degrading, discriminating against or interfering with Web content and applications. (Network operators have maintained repeatedly that they have no intention of carrying out such activity.)

Markey's proposal is almost identical to an amendment that failed twice in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which ultimately approved a proposed rewrite of the nation's telecommunications laws last month.

That larger bill has stalled since then in large part because of its treatment of Net neutrality. The House Judiciary Committee has indicated that it wants a hand in drafting laws in that area, but no determination has been made on how such action would proceed.