For immediate release:
March 1, 2010
For more information, contact:
Brandon Butler
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
brandon@arl.org
WASHINGTON DC—Eleven library and higher education-related institutions and organizations today sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski in support of preserving an open Internet.
The groups assert that the Internet faces major threats as a result of deregulation. Internet service providers (ISPs) have strong incentives to degrade certain Internet services, and new technologies increasingly allow them to control Internet traffic without end-user knowledge. Simple, flexible policies are necessary to safeguard the open nature of the Internet and to protect the free flow of information and educational content, according to the letter.
The letter’s signatories urge the adoption of Internet (Net) neutrality principles, including non-discrimination and transparency, while allowing for reasonable practices to manage technical issues such as congestion and spam. These principles would give ISPs simple ground rules and guarantee that private network operators and end users remain free to use Internet access as they see fit.
The following organizations signed the letter: the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, American Association of Community Colleges, American Council on Education, Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
To view the letter, please visit http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/ed-library-nn-principles-letter.pdf.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.