How Washington will shape the Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: July 11, 2006 10:55:04 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] How Washington will shape the Internet
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

How Washington will shape the Internet
The Web was the Wild West — until the sheriff rode into town
By Michael Rogers
Columnist
Special to MSNBC

Updated: 8:21 a.m. PT July 11, 2006
The most potent force shaping the future of the Internet is neither  
Mountain View’s Googleplex nor the Microsoft campus in Redmond.  It’s  
rather a small army of Gucci-shod lobbyists on Washington’s K Street  
and the powerful legislators whose favor they curry.

After years of benign neglect, the Federal government is finally  
involved in the Internet — big time. And the decisions being made  
over the next few months will impact not just the future of the Web,  
but that of mass media and consumer electronics as well. Yet it’s  
safe to say that far more Americans have heard about flag burning  
than the laws that may soon reshape cyberspace.

All of the major changes are encompassed in a single, sprawling bill  
that is called a “rewrite” of the 1996 Telecommunications Act but  
which in fact breaks all manner of new ground. At present the bill is  
out of committee in both houses but it’s not clear whether it will  
actually be passed this year; three weeks remain until summer recess  
and in September members may be more focused on elections than  
electrons. But sooner or later, Congress is going to lay down the  
law, and here’s a quick primer on some of the key issues:

Network neutrality: This argument has received by far the most  
publicity. It pits network owners such as Verizon and AT&T against  
the companies who buy their bandwidth, such as Google and Amazon, and  
it hinges on whether the network owners can charge extra to deliver  
certain kinds of bits — bill more for streaming video, for example,  
than simpler data like text e-mail.

Enormous lobbying forces on both sides have created a highly  
emotional battle, involving everyone from Moby to the Christian  
Coalition. One side argues that access providers will use pricing to  
lock out competitors or even censor certain Web sites. The other side  
contends that Federal pricing regulation would permanently cripple  
the development of the Internet because network owners won’t be able  
to charge enough to upgrade their infrastructure.

[snip]

URL: <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13808101/>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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