USA: Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Pearl Jam und Aerosmith setzen sich für Netzneutralität ein

In den USA hat sich die Future of Music Coalition in einem offenen Brief an die Regulierungsbehörde FCC gewendet und fordert in diesem die Durchsetzung von Netzneutralität ein. In den USA tobt gerade die Auseinandersetzung, ob Geschäftsmodelle wie das der Drosselkom legalisiert werden sollen, die den Einstieg in ein Zweiklassen-Netz schaffen.

Zu den Unterstützern gehören u.a. Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jill Sobule, OK Go, Jello Biafra und Anti-Flag. In Deutschland haben wir von bekannten Musikern außerhalb des Urheberrechtsdiskurses leider noch nie was gehört. Aber wäre es nicht schön, wenn bekannte Künstler auch hier mal ein deutliches Statement für Netzneutralität und gegen ein Zweiklassen-Netz kommunizieren würden?!

Das ist der Brief:

Dear Chairman Wheeler:

The open Internet has powered the creative community’s pursuits and offerings in the 21st century. As members of this community, we urge the Federal Communications Commissionto protect the open Internet as a vehicle for free expression and collaboration.

The Internet is the communications medium of our era. Serving as a platform to anyone with an idea, the open Internet empowers freedom of speech and freedom of expression.But the FCC is now proposing rules that would kill — rather than protect — Net Neutrality and allow rampant discrimination online.

Under these rules, telecom giants like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon would be able to pick winners and losers online and discriminate against online content and applications.

The open Internet’s impact on the creative community cannot be overstated. The Internet has enabled artists to connect directly with each other and with audiences. It has eliminated the barriers of geography and taken collaborations to new levels. And it has allowed people— not corporations — to seek out the film, music and art that moves them.

Allowing broadband providers to control this once-open platform shifts power away from individual artists and creators and interferes with freedom of speech and expression. Unless the Commission restores strong nondiscrimination protections based on a solid legal framework, creativity, cultural commerce and free expression will suffer.

Your proposed path would open the door to widespread discrimination online. It would give Internet service providers the green light to implement pay-for-priority schemes that would be disastrous for startups, nonprofits and everyday Internet users who cannot afford these unnecessary tolls. We urge you to scrap these proposed rules and instead restore the principle of online nondiscrimination by reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service.