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FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking
with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke
about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet
practices - expanding the federal agency's oversight of Internet networks.
<DAB>
The previous paragraph is referring to a recent ruling that said that Comcast cannot throttle traffic for customers who are downloading media files.This was a WIN for net neutrality. McDowell voted AGAINST barring Comcast from doing this (he was on the losing side). If Comcast had won this debate, it would have had the right to slow down traffic from certain sites.
"Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert
McDowell warned against **excessive government intrusion** in the Internet.
But Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig argued that neutrality is
the conservative approach to the issue. The Internet was designed to be
transparent and open, so "anybody can do anything," and it has created
enormous economic growth the way it is now, he said. "
As you can see from the previous, McDowell is saying that preventing Comcast from throttling traffic is "excessive government intrusion". But public interest groups that support net neutrality are praising the decision:
"In a landmark decision, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners
Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein approved a bipartisan “enforcement
order” that would require Comcast to stop blocking and publicly
disclose its methods for manipulating Internet traffic.
Tests by the Associated Press and
others showed that Comcast blocked users’ legal peer-to-peer
transmissions by sending fake signals that cut off the connection
between file-sharers. Today’s decision follows a months-long FCC
investigation, launched in response to a complaint from Free Press and
Public Knowledge urging the federal agency to stop Comcast’s blocking.
"In response to the victory, Josh Silver, Free Press executive director, said: “Comcast’s history of deception and continued blocking shows brazen contempt for the online consumer
protections established by the FCC. We commend Chairman Martin and
Commissioners Copps and Adelstein for standing up for internet users
and working across party lines to protect free speech and the free
market.”
McDowell told BMI the Fairness Doctrine isn't currently on the FCC's radar.
But a new administration and Congress elected in 2008 might renew Fairness
Doctrine efforts, but under another name.
"The Fairness Doctrine has not been raised at the FCC, but the importance of
this election is in part - has something to do with that," McDowell said.
"So you know, this election, if it goes one way, we could see a
re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine. There is a discussion of it in
Congress. I think it won't be called the Fairness Doctrine by folks who are
promoting it. I think it will be called something else and I think it'll be
intertwined into the net neutrality debate."
<DAB>
People who want net neutrality do not want any control over content by media providers. But ISPs want to control access to data by providing access to their sponsor's Web sites more quickly than to other Web sites or not provide access at all to some Web sites by preventing any connections to those sites. So the pressure on the FCC is to not allow the government to interfere with these business practices because if the FCC tries to create a level playing field, then businesses can't prioritize access to their sponsor's content.
So how did the concept of net neutrality get tied to the concept of the Fairness Doctrine, which only applies to radio? I couldn't figure out why McDowell was using that comparison until I found this October 2007 document by the Progress and Freedom Foundation (a right-wing think tank):
"In theory, net-neutrality regulation would ban Internet operators from treating some bits of online traffic or communications more favorably than others, whether for economic or political purposes. Proponents of net neutrality use the same kind of fantastic rhetoric to describe it that they once used for the Fairness Doctrine: it’s a way to “save the Internet” from “media barons,” they say, who’re apparently hell-bent on controlling all our thoughts and activities. As City Journal’s Brian Anderson notes, “It’s thus not hard to imagine a network neutrality law as the first step toward a Web fairness doctrine, with government trying to micromanage traffic flows to secure ‘equal treatment’ of opposing viewpoints (read: making sure all those noisy right-wingers get put back in their place).”
Net neutrality is intended to protect consumers from media providers who want to control access to content so they can make more money. McDowell wants to protect the interests of the companies rather than the interests of consumers. Government enforcement (FCC) is required for enforcement of net neutrality.
The Fairness Doctrine is intended to protect free speech by providing alternate views to those expressed on radio shows when the radio station is providing all programming from one viewpoint. Government enforcement (FCC) is required for enforcement of the fairness doctrine.
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