IP Democracy: FTC Releases Lethal Door Stop Net Neutrality Report

The FTC released today its report on net neutrality, a product of the agency’s Internet Access Task Force. It’s a backbreaker — 160 pages (PDF here) of dense material authored by at least 16 people and covering a tremendous amount of territory, starting with the rise of ARPAnet and ending with the current debate.

In short, I can’t read it. After scanning the turgid, legalistic and heavily footnoted prose, I gave up reading all but the last section where the report identifies “guiding principles that policy makers should consider in evaluating proposed regulations or legislation relating to broadband Internet access and network neutrality.”

Among these principles are 1. promote competition in the broadband distribution business 2. proceed with caution and 3. watch out for adverse and unintended consequences of regulation.

Public Knowledge, however, is doing its job and taking this report seriously. They praise the FTC for its investigation into the issue, but take issue with one idea embraced in the report, namely that discrimination by broadband providers can often serve the public welfare (e.g., give doctors priority to engage in telemedicine.) In a statement, the group’s President Gigi Sohn said

It is unfortunate that the FTC staff chose to talk about the differentiation of services, which under some conditions could be beneficial to consumers and network companies, instead of discrimination, which helps no one.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 27, 2007 3:57 PM to IP Democracy