After news broke earlier that the FCC will move to regulate Internet lines, we assembled five experts on net neutrality to spar on the topic. There was blood, tears (I may be exaggerating slightly) and frank discourse on the FCC’s jurisdiction and the possible fallout for Internet competition, access and the FCC’s much ballyhooed National Broadband plan.
Andrew Keen, author of The Cult Of The Amateur, led the discussion which included Richard Bennett (research fellow at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation), Larry Downes (fellow of the Stanford Law School Center For Internet & Society), Michael Masnick (CEO and Founder of Techdirt) and Gigi Sohn (CEO and Founder of Public Knowledge, who came in on Skype).
This is of course a major issue for the Internet community and all its stakeholders, from the cable providers to the consumers. According to reports, the FCC will try to regulate internet lines under Title 2 of the Communications Act, which is currently used to oversee the traditional telecom industry. It’s a workaround for the FCC, which was handed a defeat last month when a federal court decided that the regulatory agency did not have the power to enforce net neutrality (in a case against Comcast). It’s a been a divisive issue, pitting providers against consumer groups and Internet companies.
The lines were clearly marked in this debate, with Sohn arguing in favor of the FCC, calling the Communications Act a logical regulatory framework that the providers will be familiar with. Bennett – who, speaking to Keen after the shoot, called the FCC’s move the “9/11 for the Internet” – adamantly disagrees, saying the FCC never had the jurisdiction to regulate the Internet. Many of the panelists agreed that if the FCC follows through on this decision, it will trigger several lawsuits that will tie up our federal courts for years (Keen warns of the “invasion of the lawyers”). Full interview above.
Full disclosure: Andrew Keen is an adviser to Arts and Labs, which is an industry coalition skeptical of net neutrality reform.
Andrew Keen is an Anglo-American entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster and public speaker. He is the author of the international hit “Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages and was short-listed for the Higham’s Business Technology Book of the Year award. As a pioneering Silicon Valley based Internet entrepreneur, Andrew founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and built it into a popular first generation Internet music company. He is currently the...
Gigi Sohn is an internationally known communications attorney. In September 2001, she founded Public Knowledge with Laurie Racine (then President of the Center for the Public Domain) and activist/author David Bollier. Gigi serves as PK’s chief strategist, fundraiser and public face. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has been published in the Washington Post, Variety, CNET and Legal Times. In addition, she...
Richard Bennett is a broadband network architect and policy consultant, currently working with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation as a Research Fellow specializing in Internet policy. A contributor to the IEEE standards for Ethernet over Twisted Pair and Wi-Fi, he worked for 3Com for ten years producing Ethernet products, for Airgo, Trapeze, and Sharp Labs doing WiFi products, and for companies like Cisco and HP in the Internet space. He has testified before Congress and the FCC on...
Larry Downes is a consultant and speaker on developing business strategies in an age of constant disruption caused by information technology. Downes is author of the Business Week and New York Times business bestseller, “Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance†(Harvard Business School Press, 1998), which has sold nearly 200,000 copies and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology. His new book, “The Laws...
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