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Senate Committee Debates Future of the Internet

FCC chairman, net neutrality supporters square off

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 23, 2008 

The continuing battle over net neutrality took center stage in the hearings, as well as discussions on improving America's broadband development, network management, and content blocking.

Committee chairman Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) set the tone for the hearing by singing the praises of what he called "a key factor in the ability of the United States to steadily improve worker productivity for the past 15 years. Our economy and the quality of our lives have evolved significantly because of this 'network of networks.'"

"The central question here seems to be how to best balance the right of the American people to uncensored and unfettered access to Internet content and services against the desire of Internet service providers to manage their networks in an efficient and profitable manner," Inouye said.

Inouye also reiterated support for his "Broadband Data Improvement Act," which would change the standards the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) uses to measure broadband availability in the U.S., in order to get more accurate statistics as to who actually has access.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin provided the sole testimony of the first panel, where he was grilled by the committee over his agency's investigation of Comcast's content blocking practices, as well as the FCC's ability to enforce its Internet policies without additional laws.

Martin reiterated that he did not believe any additional regulations were needed "at this time," and that "the Commission stands ready to enforce [its] policy statement and protect consumers' access to the Internet."

Martin, a Republican whose policy decisions have made him a frequent guest of Congressional hearings since the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006, also claimed in his testimony that Comcast's content blocking was more widespread than the company had reported, and that the tools it was using to shape network traffic were "blunt tools" that rendered "users [unable] to upload anything they wanted and...unable to fully use certain file-sharing software from peer-to-peer networks."

Martin also indirectly addressed charges that his policies unduly favor telecom companies at the expense of their competitors in the cable industry.

"For the Commission to take action against a telephone company for blocking or degrading a particular application but refuse to take enforcement action against a cable company...would unfairly favor the cable industry," he said.

Mixed broadband bag

The second panel had speakers ranging from Christian Coalition vice president Michele Combs, to Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, to writer and actress Justine Bateman, best known for her role as Mallory Keaton on classic '80's sitcom "Family Ties."

Bateman opened her testimony by crediting the Internet with providing voices to diverse talents who have suffered due to excessive media consolidation in the entertainment industry.

"In entertainment, I believe we are on the verge of a creative renaissance and the Internet is the new grid upon which this renaissance can rest, because unfortunately the business grid of TV and film today cannot support that," Bateman said. "A whole new class of small business owners will emerge, providing thousands of new jobs in a sector that desperately needs them. Net neutrality would insure a level playing field for that."

Lessig, a longtime net neutrality advocate who recently spoke at the FCC's hearing on the issue at Stanford, said that new regulations would aid, rather than hinder, innovation developed from the Internet.

"Like a traditional marketplace, or a modern stock market, a neutral network assures that in the negotiation between buyer and seller, or innovator and consumer, the network itself plays little or no substantive role," Lessig said. "All the power within this negotiation is shifted to the edge, to those economic actors directly responsible for innovation and growth in network applications and content — namely, consumers and innovators."

Combs testified that the Christian Coalition had joined the "Save The Internet" coalition to preserve net neutrality because "we believe that organizations such as the Christian Coalition should be able to continue to use the Internet to communicate with our members and with a worldwide audience without a phone or cable company snooping in on our communications and deciding whether to allow a particular communication to proceed, slow it down, block it, or offer to speed it up if the author pays extra to be on the 'fast lane'."

Combs said that the Internet pornography industry would pay premium rates to prosper even with networks blocking access to certain types of content, and that if cable companies freed up video-on-demand pornography channels to use for more Internet bandwith, they would not have to shape traffic and block users from downloading and uploading content as they pleased.

"Let's remember, it was the transmitting of the King James Bible that Comcast blocked, which caused the current controversy," Combs said. "It was not as if the company was trying to protect consumers from inappropriate content."

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