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IP: AOL Ends Lobbying for Open Access
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 12:01:04 -0500
[ Guess it depends on which side you are on djf] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42393-2000Feb11.html By Peter S. Goodman and Craig Timberg Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, February 12, 2000; Page A1 For more than a year, America Online, the nation's most favored on-ramp to the Internet, led a pitched battle in statehouses and city halls around the country, mobilizing lobbyists and proposing rules to force cable television companies to share their links into homes with rivals. Without such rules, AOL warned, cable operators offering high-speed Internet access could seize control of the gateway to the global computer network. The free nature of the Web was at risk. Then, last month, AOL essentially became a cable company: It agreed to buy Time Warner, securing a route into 20 million homes via the company's cable links. Now, AOL has pulled back from its "open access" crusade. This week, the Dulles-based company took no action as two bills mandating open access died in the Virginia General Assembly. It has told its lobbyists in other states, including Maryland, not to advocate similar legislation. And the company has quieted its demands that federal authorities condition approval of the merger of AT&T Corp. and cable giant MediaOne Group Inc. on promises of open access. AOL still contends that cable systems must offer their customers a choice of Internet providers and it still wants to make deals to get itself on other systems. But now the company asserts that the market should sort out the details. ... ************************************************ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin, ~1784 ************************************************
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