You Roared, They Caved

Time Warner Cable’s price-gouging scheme came crashing down this past Friday.

In a spectacular victory for Free Press and supporters like you, the company buckled under public pressure and abandoned its plan to impose Internet penalties against those who go online for more than email and basic Web surfing.

If they had gotten away with this scam, users of online innovations like Web video and radio would have been forced to pay up to $100 more per month for full broadband service.

Time Warner Cable didn’t cave because of a sudden spurt of good conscience. They reacted to a torrent of protest from Free Press members and from Internet users across the country.

Savor this victory, because it belongs to you. You proved -- again -- that when we pull together, we can defend our online rights against even the biggest of Big Media giants.

But this fight isn’t over. The threat of this kind of price gouging is not going away. Big media companies like Time Warner Cable, Comcast and AT&T know that the new media landscape -- with Internet users watching video at YouTube, listening to radio at Pandora and making phone calls using applications like Skype -- is a threat to their monopoly control.

They’ll do whatever it takes to protect their profits and limit your freedoms.
Our victory is a lesson in what we’ll need to keep doing to stop these companies from squeezing our use of the Internet:

In less than a week, Free Press generated more than 16,000 letters to Congress, urging members to launch an immediate investigation of Time Warner Cable.

Our policy advocates are working with pro-Internet policymakers on Capitol Hill to stop these sorts of anti-competitive scams and make sure more Americans can get online.

Our media outreach fueled a withering barrage of negative press (including mention of our work in more than 50 prominent news stories), consumer complaints, blog postings, and other opposition to Time Warner Cable's scheme.

This week’s victory over Time Warner Cable proved what we can do when we pull together. Pat yourself on the back!