Senators Use Comcast Blocking to Revive Net Neutrality Debate
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Two key sponsors of legislation that would effectively codify the meaning of "net neutrality" asked the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee to hold public hearings into the motivations of Comcast and other broadband service providers in filtering certain categories of traffic.
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Blog: Amidst thousands of comments about whether Net neutrality rules are needed, media conglomerate urges FCC to stress that broadband providers must fight transfer of copyrighted works.
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Senators debate whether to extend or limit a ban on access and other Internet-only taxes.
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A senior U.S. lawmaker said on  Wednesday he had introduced legislation designed to prevent  broadband Internet providers from unreasonable interference  with subscribers' access to content.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has formed a political action committee to exert pressure on the U.S. Congress and promote legislation that benefits the company. The group, called Google NetPAC, saw the light on Thursday, when Google registered it with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, a Google spokesman confirmed via e-mail. "Google NetPAC will support officeholders and candidates who share Google's goal of preserving and promoting the Internet as a free and open platform for information, communication, and innovation," the spokesman wrote. A key legislative and regulatoryÂ concern for Google is net neutrality. Its executives favor a law to force broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast to give all traffic on their networks the same quality of service and speed. In addition to Google, other Internet companies like Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon.com support net neutrality andÂ want Congress to prohibit broadband providersÂ from blocking or degrading Web content and services from potential competitors. Opponents, which include broadband providers and network equipment vendors like Cisco Systems and Qualcomm, say a net neutrality law will let Internet companies like Google continue toÂ ride for "free"Â on broadband networks. Such a law will prevent broadband providers from charging Web companies new fees for higher speeds and a better quality of service, money needed to build faster networks for new bandwidth-intensive services like Internet TV, net neutrality opponents say. If companies like Google don't pay extra, then broadband providers will have to increase fees to consumers, they say. Other regulatory and legislative issues that are likely of concern for Google include Internet privacy, stock-option accounting, law-enforcement access to search engine records and copyright protection. Google also hired former Republican senators Dan Coats and Connie Mack as outside lobbyists, the Google spokesman confirmed. "We've hired outside firms from across the political spectrum that offer effective expertise to communicate our policy messages," he wrote. Other high-tech companies with political action committees include Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay and AOL's parent company Time Warner.
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Senate Democrats pressed the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission this week to slap tighter controls on media ownership, public-interest broadcasting and television violence. But after a sometimes contentious two-hour hearing Thursday, some lawmakers expressed little hope of...
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The inventor of the World Wide Web, advocates U.S. Congressional protection for net neutrality.
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The Supreme Court on Friday stepped into one of the most heated debates over the future of the Internet: how to classify high-speed Internet cable service for purposes
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FCC Chairman said the commission would investigate complaints that Comcast was blocking some peer-to-peer traffic.
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Comcast for months has denied blocking BitTorrent traffic, but new tests show that it takes aggressive filtering steps that AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision do not.
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Congress moved Wednesday toward reinstating a ban on Internet access taxes, as the Senate modified a measure it had previously passed with hopes that the House of Representatives would take it up.
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Blog: The same pair of politicos who pushed last year for strict nondiscrimination requirements for broadband operators are looking to federal regulators to help revive their cause.
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Lawmakers may vote on Internet tax ban, controversial copyright bills before the end of the year.
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Sources say FCC on Tuesday will further exempt Internet calls from state rules and taxes. But is cable a fly in the ointment?
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Some advocacy groups praise a new net neutrality bill in Congress.
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Another of the Net's founding wizards weighed in on the Net neutrality debate this week, as Tim Berners-Lee advocated that Congress protect Net neutrality and questioned the value of digital rights management tech.
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A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday proposed legislation to stop network providers from playing traffic cop on the Internet.