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Net Neutrality Wins a Small Victory In Congress

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 26, 2006

Net Neutrality • Comcast, Cox Caught Blocking BitTorrent • Will Antitrust Law Save Net Neutrality? • Few Are Neutral in Net Neutrality Battles • Net Neutrality Supporters Testify • Comcast Blocks Public From FCC Hearing • Congress Gets Net Neutrality Legislation • Time Warner To Test Metered Pricing For Broadband • House Committee To Probe FCC • FCC To Investigate Comcast For Blocking Net Traffic • Verizon Wireless Opens Network to All Devices, Software • Comcast Sued Over Internet Blocking • Verizon Overrides Internet Searches With Its Own Results • Comcast Blocks Subscribers From Some Services • Verizon's Abortion Block Raises Net Neutrality Concerns • FTC Nixes Net Neutrality • Wireless Spectrum May Hold Key To Net Neutrality • Telcos Lift Block On FreeConference.Com • FCC Takes Another Look at Net Neutrality • AT&T Blocks Calls To Competing Conference Call Service • Study: Ending Net Neutrality Would Hurt Consumers • FCC, FTC Challenged To Protect Net Neutrality • Net Neutrality Back on Congress' Agenda • Net Neutrality Opponents Step Up PR Blitz • AT&T Trumpets New TV Service • Verizon Joins BellSouth in Retreat From Unexplained New DSL Fee • FCC Nudges BellSouth Into Giving Up New DSL Fees • FTC Head Urges "Caution" On Net Neutrality • Net Neutrality May Derail Telecom Bill • Google: No Net Neutrality Means Antitrust Fight • Senate Prepares for Net Neutrality Showdown • Congress Moves Quickly To Satisfy Telecoms' Net Neutrality, Cable Entry Demands • Net Neutrality Gets Its Day In Congress • Net Neutrality Wins Committee Vote In Congress • Net Neutrality Attracts Surprising Allies • Congress Wrestles with Net Neutrality

Supporters of Net Neutrality won a small, but crucial victory in Congress, when members of the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-13 to pass a bill prohibiting the blocking of Internet content.

The measure now goes to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

The "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act," co-authored by Judiciary Committee chair James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), was crafted in response to a public outcry in support of Net Neutrality, the principle that all content on the Internet should be accessed equally, and that consumers and content providers should not pay additional fees to network providers in order to access the Web sites they want.

The bill would make it "unlawful for any Internet provider to fail to provide its broadband network services on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions such that any person can offer or provide content, applications, or services to or over he network in a manner that is at least equal to the manner in which the provider or its affiliates offer content, applications, and services, free of any surcharge on the basis of the content, application, or service."

The Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill may be presented as an amendment to the sweeping new telecommunications legislation introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Joe Barton (R-TX). Barton's bill has no provisions for protecting Net Neutrality, except for granting the Federal Communications Commission the right to enforce the principle in cases of dispute.

Sensenbrenner pushed for the Barton bill to be remanded to the Judiciary Committee in order to address the Net Neutrality issue, which he saw as falling under the antitrust umbrella. When that move failed, he and Conyers then introduced their own bill.

Fourteen Democrats and six Republicans voted to support the bill. In a statement on his Web site's blog, Rep. Conyers said that an "important victory was won today for the rights of Internet consumers."

Conyers credited the "grassroots" efforts of progressive groups such as the MyDD.com blog and MoveOn.org with the victory. "Members of Congress heard from plenty of their constituents about the importance of this bill and not one Democrat voted against it," Conyers said.

Both MoveOn.org and MyDD.com are members of the "Save The Internet" coalition, an alliance of organizations dedicated to preserving the principles of equal access to Internet content for all Web users.

The coalition boasts a diverse membership, ranging from the Christian Coalition and Gun Owners of America, to rockers Moby and R.E.M and actress Alyssa Milano, as well as hundreds of bloggers, Web writers, and Internet business owners.

The "Save The Internet" coalition delivered a petition with over 750,000 signatures to Congress, urging it to support Net Neutrality.

The fate of the Net Neutrality push is still unclear.

In addition to the Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill, which may be offered as an amendment to the Barton telecom bill, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is offering his own "Network Neutrality Act of 2006" for passage in the House.

Markey tried unsuccessfully to amend the Barton bill in order to insert provisions preventing the blocking of Internet content.

Any bill the House passes must be reconciled with the Senate, where Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) is offering his own massive update of telecommunications law.

Although Stevens' bill does not directly address Net Neutrality protection, several Senators have offered up separate pieces of legislation that would codify the principles of unfettered Internet access as law.

Senators Olympia Snowe (R-MI) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) authored the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act" in order to prevent, in Snowe's words, "fundamental changes to the Internet that would undo the democratic principles upon which it was founded."

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