Re: EFF, Educom & HR1757

[Pres Smith <PGSMITH@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu>]

     Peter Graham asks for an explanation of the allusion to the
 "curious alliances of EFF & Educom" in my post.

     I hear EFF & Educom aren't speaking.  Nevertheless, both are
 supporting a quick passage of HR1757 which seems to be on or near
 the House floor for passage.  Among other things HR1757 supports
 the eventual dismantling of the NSFnet backbone as already
 envisioned in the NSF solicitation; it fragments federal participation
 among a number of agencies and gives the primary discretion regarding
 educational grants for applications, k12 accees, etc. to the NSF as
 did the Gore bill; it restricts federal involvement in favor of
 commercial development; it authorizes granting agencies to include
 network costs in Grantees applications--thus shifting support for
 general University access to, mainly, science grants.  In general,
 it authorizes giving away of a taxpayer investment of billions of
 dollars over a 20+year period to industry with only a trickle of
 of support for general education, k12 and public access.

     And that's only one of Boucher's bills!

     Supporters of HR1757 are saying the time and place to take a
 stand is when the Senate bill is heard, but since this is rumored
 to be worse, the compromise is likely to be no better than HR1757
 at best.

     EFF is off on some mystical wild hair, and Educom has been
 satisfied with slight assurances that it's member institutions will
 continue to be subsidized at some level, all very vague.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Prescott Smith     Univ. of Massachusetts/Amherst     pgsmith@educ.umass.edu
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