At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing entitled "The Future of the Internet" on Tuesday, Democratic politicians argued for passage of a law designed to prohibit broadband operators from creating a "fast lane" for certain Internet content and applications. Their stance drew familiar criticism from the cable industry, their Republican counterparts, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who said there's no demonstrated need for new rules, at this point.Some of the senators seemed to think the Comcast debacle indicated there was need for legislation:— Net neutrality battle returns to the U.S. Senate, by Anne Broache, C|Net News.com, 22 April 2008
"To whatever degree people were alleging that this was a solution in search of a problem, it has found its problem," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). "We have an obligation to try and guarantee that the same freedom and the same creativity that was able to bring us to where we are today continues, going forward."Kerry is one of the backers of a bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, chiefly sponsored by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan and Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, which resurfaced at the beginning of 2007 but has gotten little attention since. A similar measure failed in a divided Commerce Committee and in the House of Representatives nearly two years ago.
Unsurprisingly, Martin says he doesn't need a law to enforce, because he can make it up as he goes along:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and others testified before the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday. Chairman Martin fought a bit with lawmakers over whether the FCC has the authority to punish Comcast over charges that it blocks certain kinds of Internet traffic — a practice Chairman Martin said is more widespread than the company had previously acknowledged.This is the best part:Martin said Comcast’s blocking of BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic appeared to happen when there wasn’t network congestion, in contrast to claims from the broadband provider. Comcast’s actions, first described by the Associated Press last October, appeared to “block uploads of a significant portion of subscribers” in that part of the network, even during times when the network wasn’t congested, Martin said. Martin said Comcast’s blocking of BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic appeared to happen when there wasn’t network congestion, in contrast to claims from the broadband provider. Comcast’s actions, first described by the Associated Press last October, appeared to “block uploads of a significant portion of subscribers” in that part of the network, even during times when the network wasn’t congested, Martin said.
Chairman Martin resisted calls by Democratic members of the committee to pass a network neutrality law, saying the FCC now has the authority to act on network blocking complaints on a case-by-case basis. The FCC in 2005 adopted a set of open Internet policy principles, and it has responded to traffic-blocking complaints, Martin said.
— Senate Net Neutrality Hearing Recap, By Benton Foundation. mediachannel.org, April 23, 2008
Sen John Kerry (D-MA) is concerned the FCC may face lawsuits if it enforces its Network Neutrality principles without new legislation from Congress. Senate Republicans voiced opposition to new legislation, with Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) saying that “intense regulation” of the Internet would be “entirely unwarranted.”Sen. "Series of Tubes" Stevens, the same senator who wants to let corporations in general off the hook for breach reporting, is the leader of the back against "intense regulation".
After all, with no law to enforce, the FCC can throw a sop to the masses now and then and let the duopoly get away with murder the rest of the time. That is what this is really about: control. Martin's faction wants a unitary executive, a government of men, not laws. The rest of us may prefer the Constitution.
-jsq
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