KBOO News in Depth: Barrett Brown and Net Neutrality

Today on KBOO News in Depth, we’ll look into two internet freedom issues that are in the news this week.  In a few minutes, we’ll be talking about net neutrality.  But First, the case of Barret Brown, A prominent internet activist who was sentenced today to five years in prison.  He was originally facing decades in prison, but ended up pleading guilty to a lesser charge

Barrett Brown is a well known activist and journalist whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Businessweek, and many other outlets. He has appeared as a guest on MSNBC, Fox News and Russia Today.
At his sentencing today, Brown pointed out that his conviction was based solely on the fact that he posted a link on his blog – a link that dozens of other journalists also posted without being prosecuted.
He pointed out that the fact that he alone is being punished is proof that people who advocate against secrecy are pursued without regard for the rule of law or common decency.
This video posted today on We are change dot org gives some of the reasons why internet activists are so concerned about the implications of this case:
 
 
A so-called ‘net neutrality’ bill introduced by Congressional Republicans has drawn scathing reviews from the open internet advocates at Free Press.
The bill has the enthusiastic support of media giants like Comcast, who are hoping to create a ‘two tiered internet’ in which they can charge more for premium content and relegate certain websites to an ‘internet hinterland’ in which the sites load too slowly for them to be usable.
The media reform organization Free Press refers to the bill as ‘fake’ net neutrality.
Their strategy Director Timothy Karr spoke with KBOO’s Robin Ryan to explain why actual net neutrality is so important, and what it means to reclassify the internet as a utility.