Meg Whitman's Call To Action for Free Internet

If you've ever bought or sold anything through eBay then there is a letter sitting in your inbox from the company's CEO and President, Meg Whitman. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest you do... right now. Go ahead... I'll wait.

For those of you who didn't get the letter or deleted it unread, here are some of the highlights:

As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would allow them to divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two-lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington.

Whitman supplies two links through eBay in which to write your representative. I implore you to do this. The form asks for your name, address and phone but that is only to connect with the proper representatives. Please do this. I know it may not hekp but you know that old adage "you cannot win if you do not play." I don't want us to be paying out the ass to meet here again. Savvy?