I am a member of eBay and recently received this e-mail from eBay (and it was officialy from eBay):

Net Neutrality and the eBay Community: A Call to Action

As you know, I (the C.E.O. of eBay) almost never reach out to you (the members of eBay) personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today, I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

The phone and cable companies now control more than ninety-five percent of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two-lane system will restrict innovation, because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity, and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington. Please join me by clicking here (http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/takeac...id=neutrality1) (you must be a membe of eBay to use this site; but you can do the same thing without being a member of eBay at http://www.itsournet.org/; It's Our Net is a coalition against what this e-mail is describing) right now to send a message to your representatives in Congress before it is too late. You can make the difference.

Thank you for reading this note. I hope you'll make your voice heard today.

Sincerely,

Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.

P.S. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact us at government_relations@ebay.com (again, you must be a member of eBay).

I heard about the "Net Neutrality" issue a few weeks ago, and it does reall suck. Hopefully things won't get out of hand.

www.savetheinternet.com has lots of info and an online petition that can be signed.

I recommend that you don't sign the online petition - officials rarely pay attention to them. Instead, you should start a proper petition, which can then be sent to your local government official.

I'm only slightly worried about this issue. At the moment, it hasn't affected the UK. I have a feeling that it will at some point however.

Either way you look at it, the aim of some of these companies is to make money. The Internet was created to transfer information from one location to another. These big companies are changing the whole format of the internet and turning it into a big market for profit. Who pays per view on the internet? That's one of the most ignorant ideas ever created. How does that benefit the customer at all? It causes more inconvenience than benefit to the average internet user.

I agree we need to make a stand. These large telephone companies slowly are turning down the dark path, we have to plant our foot now. The Internet should be Free from interference from large or small corporations.

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous... end up with crappy service and possibly restricted access, unless you want to pay more...

As for signing a petition? Go ahead and sign the online one, it won't do anything though, so if you sign it, sign a real one too.

Thanks for your replies! I'll try to take some of your suggestions. I'll see if I can't start a petition on petitiononline.com. Look for something called "Stop US Congress from Controlling the Internet!" or something like that.

I was unable to make a petition on petitiononline.com or thepetitionsite.com. The former never sent me a confirmation e-mail (I've had that problem before). And the latter said "we cannot complete your transaction," or some other bs, when I tried to register. It'd be great if someone else could try to make a petition on either site and let us know what it is.

I'm sure there's already internet petitions about it, so just sign one of those... not that it matters... only bother signing one if you plan on signing a real petition that gets sent into your local government official as well.