Three Drafts of Senate Commerce Committee Communications Bill

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 19, 2006 8:31:04 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Three Drafts of Senate Commerce Committee  
Communications Bill
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

THREE DRAFTS OF SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS BILL

[SOURCE: Drew Clark]
A copy of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Steven's new telecom  
legislation is available -- and it keeps growing. What started out as  
135 pages on May 1 grew to 151 pages in the June 9 draft that was  
released on June 12. This third draft -- dated June 16 and expected  
to be officially unveiled in a 10 a.m. briefing on Capitol Hill --  
tops off at 151 pages. Most significantly, this new draft makes good  
on the pledge Stevens made, 11 days ago, to significantly modify the  
Net Neutrality provisions of the legislation. Indeed, an entire new  
section is present -- "Internet Consumer Bill of Rights Act" -- goes  
so far as to "apply" the First Amendment to Bell companies that would  
attempt to "limit, restrict, ban, prohibit or otherwise regulate  
content on the Internet because of the religious views, political  
views, or any other views expressed in such content unless  
specifically authorized by law." All of the Bell and cable companies  
have already said that they wouldn't block or impede the ability of  
consumers to access such sites. Advocates of strict net neutrality  
note that this new consumer bill of rights says nothing about  
discrimination or non-discrimination. And that is certain to set up a  
conflict over whether Stevens' new approach does more, less or about  
the same as the House-passed version's limited approach to net  
neutrality.

<http://www.drewclark.com/2006/06/three-drafts-of-stevens-bill.shtml>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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