Maine gets net neutrality bill

THE US STATE of Maine is the first to get a 'net neutrality' bill to play with.

While the politicians in Congress have dragging their feet to pass such a bill, worried that enacting it would lose them all those campaign contributions from the telcos, Maine has just gone ahead and done it. If in a slightly watered-down version,

Its Senate today gave its final approval to an amended version of the "net neutrality" bill The original bill prohibited Internet providers from charging Web sites for faster load times, required information to be routed on a first-come, first-served basis and barred the blocking of content.

The "amended measure" calls for the Maine Office of the Public Advocate to monitor activity about Internet access on both the federal and state levels and report to the Legislature's Utilities Committee by February 1.

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