Is anyone keeping track of where the '08 Presidential hopefuls in the Senate stand on this?    It's not a make-or-break issue for me, but I also think that it's a much more significant issue than it appears at first (and I'm glad to see MyDD covering it).

-Toby

I watched some of the recent hearings chaired by Ted Stevens.  Most web service companies like Google support the net neutrality amendments.  

We can't let the companies, with practical monopolies on the way we connect with each other and the web,  create artificial scarcity to increase their prices and revenue.  That is exactly what their tiered services and traffic shaping will do without our help.

I'm completely out of my depth on both the technical and regulatory issues here.

So, while I can be pretty sure that whatever legislative changes AT&T proposes about anything involve a sizable ripoff of the American consumer sometime soon, I'd be uncomfortable pronouncing definitively on the merits.

The Salon piece mentioned (but not linked!) by the Boing Boing piece is helpful, up to a point, in providing backstory.

For example, it points out that

phone and cable companies have been trying to reduce competition in the broadband business even further. They convinced the FCC to allow them to prohibit rival Internet service providers -- such as Earthlink -- from offering high-speed net access on phone- and cable-company-owned lines. (Phone and cable companies do lease their lines to independent ISPs like Earthlink, but under current rules they can decline to do so at any time.)

Of course, it would be a useful test of Dem/K Street cooperation to see if they could weld a coalition of the likes of Google to fight for net neutrality. I wonder, though, whether the elections might take precedence this year.

The best, I suspect, that can be done is to run down the clock in the 109th, hope for a House/Senate stymie and a change of control in the 110th.

Question for Dems: if the (still unpublished) CORE Act fails to make it this session, what are the chances of a similar bill being reported out in similar shape by a Dem-controlled Commerce Committee?

The danger of moving towards the mainstream media model is in the potential to usurp the consensus view of the readership that the blogosphere offers something different and more importantly, something more. The backbone of the blogosphere is clearly supported by these serious and thoughtful readers who have been able to find the substance they crave in light of the vacuum that is the media establishment. If we simply become an extension of that establishment, not only will bloggers be devoured by huge news organizations, we will have forsaken our enablers.

Ultimately, the blogosphere is an opportunity to participate in the exponential advancement of communications. Each day our world grows smaller as those connecting on the blogosphere grow closer. Keeping this new frontier chastened is a daunting task but the potential benefits make the effort essential. In the rush for a segment of the audience, we mustn't pollute the soil from which this cabal of cable germinated...wherein...ever nourished by the pursuit of truth and its application to the events that impact each of us, we sit glaring into our computer screens...ever hopeful that those looking back are similarly motivated. Without question, the stakes are enormous.

read more observations here:

www.thoughttheater.com

Harris Miller defended net neutrality in his MyDD interview.

While I agree that the principle of net neutrality is a very important one, and that fighting for a workable provision to protect it is worthwhile, there are other elements at play in the telecom legislative arena that are likely to be more important in the long run.  These include insuring that municipalities retain the right to deploy fiber and wireless broadband networks (something that's restricted to varying degrees in some states) and making unused broadcast spectrum (a.k.a. white space) available for unlicensed broadband uses.  A bill offered by Senators McCain and Lautenberg would protect cities' rights to deploy broadband networks, while two Senate bills have recently been proposed to authorize unlicensed use of white space spectrum.

Imposing a net neutrality regulatory regime that's workable, that has teeth and that won't end up being litigated into oblivion would be challenging at best even if today's Congress wasn't so corrupt and inept.  

Ultimately, a more complete solution lies in creating alternative open-access networks that combine the unlimited capacity of fiber with the mobility enabled by wireless.  I've blogged about this at "IP & Democracy" (www.ipdemocracy.com), and recommend a newly published book called "America at the Internet Crossroads" (http://www.america-at-the-internet-cross roads.com/).  The book presents a strong argument and practical blueprint for a phased-in transition from today's two-pipe vertically-integrated duopoly mode of Internet access to an "Internet road" model that would serve as a 21st century parallel to the 20th century deployment of a ubiquitous public motor vehicle road network.   It's author, Mike Bookey, contends that the real battle over the future of the Internet is unfolding at the local community level, where the reality of  duopoly broadband "market failure" is increasingly being felt by local citizens, governments, businesses, schools and healthcare facilities...and that the best models for building and financing 21st century "Internet roads" will emerge from local test beds, where the rubber (or, in this case, the silicon) meets the road.

A good source of information on the white space spectrum issue, which I reference in various IPD blog posts, is the New America Foundation, which has been working hard in this area (see http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=s ec_home&secID=3) and at the personal blog (http://www.jhsnider.net/telecompolicy/ ) of Jim Snider, NAF's Wireless Future Program's research director.

I'd also recommend Yochai Benkler's new book, "The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedoms," which I'm in the process of reading and blogged about earlier today. Here's what Larry Lessig, a leading advocate of an open Internet and opponent of corporate control of media, had to say about it on his blog:  "This is--by far--the most important and powerful book written in the fields that matter most to me in the last ten years. If there is one book you read this year, it should be this." Benkler's book is available for downloading under a Creative Commons license at http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_network s/index.php/Download_PDFs_of_the_book.