Corporate Elite gather to "debate" Net Neutrality.

Originally posted to facebook: (Comments copied for archival) 

On February 7 and 8, the corporate elite of Canada will get together to discuss the future of the internet, your privacy and most importantly Net Neutrality.

The 9th annual privacy and security conference in Victoria will be priced at $550 a head. You wont find activists, democratic media interests, consumer groups or well pretty much anyone who matters... what you will find is a group of corporate sponsors, lead by Bell and Rogers, who are heavily targeting the public sector in an effort to back-door lobby.

The kick-back? Reduced admission fees for government employees. They get in for $325 of your tax dollars. How generous.

As one of the forefront activists in Canada on Net Neutrality, I find it even more telling that not even a single member of the panel can be found on my contact list. What you will find is mainstream players from the major telecoms. In fact, bell seems to be a platinum sponsor. http://www.rebootconference.com/privacy2008/sponsor.php ...

With this targeting of government regulators, the sponsorship by telecoms and the exclusion of independent voices, it should be pretty clear what the message will be at the end of the day. Net Neutrality the false dichotomy between the Telecoms and Google.

They've even titled the event as so "Who Should Spin the Web?: Free Market Versus Net Neutrality"....

http://www.rebootconference.com/privacy2008/agenda.php

What a joke.