Markey's Non-Regulation Net Neutrality Regulation

from the this-does-what-exactly? dept

As I've made clear in the past, while I believe that a neutral internet is important to encourage growth and innovation, I worry that any legislation passed to require net neutrality will backfire. It will be gamed by lobbyists and there will be loopholes and unintended consequences that will cause a lot more problems than expected. Also, getting Congress into the business of regulating the internet is quite dangerous. So, with that in mind, I should probably be more supportive of Rep. Markey's newly introduced net neutrality legislation because it's barely regulatory at all. There's no mandate and no punishment. It simply states that neutrality is an important principle, and empowers the FCC to look into allegations of anyone violating this principle. However, if that's the case, why bother at all? After all, the FCC already looks into these allegations. Effectively, the only thing this really does is force the FCC to move back to former chair Michael Powell's principles concerning the internet, rather than Kevin Martin's more telco-friendly policies. While I agree that Powell's principles were more reasonable, it's difficult to see why Congress needs to get involved at all at this point -- especially to put up legislation that doesn't do anything other than say what it hopes internet providers will do.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ed markey, fcc, internet, net neutrality, regulations


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Exiled From The Mainstream, 13 Feb 2008 @ 3:33pm

    Huh.

    Its mainly a reinforcement tactic I think. Markey wants it in so theres something in place thats in favor of net neutrality and harder to dislodge, otherwise its a gap a bill AGAINST net neutrality can fill.

    It seems silly and it probably is unless you're looking at it from Markey's viewpoint and logic. Its also one of those "Hey look we're doing something!" political tactics. Besides hoping on the internet providers is like hoping the wolves wont eat the sheep if you leave them alone together.

    I'm probably full of it though so whatever, just my two cents.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    known coward, 14 Feb 2008 @ 6:37am

    I do not think

    That any legislation congress has passed endorsed net neutrality as a policy So i think that is Markety's point.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2008 @ 12:00pm

    this is the same congress that banned online gambling right? how is that keeping the internet neutral?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.