Lawmakers introduce new net neutrality bill

Two lawmakers have introduced legislation that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or impairing Web content from competitors.

Reps. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Chip Pickering, a Mississippi Republican, introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act Wednesday. The bill says it is U.S. policy to "guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degredation of, content by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination on the Internet."

The bill would also require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to open a proceeding on broadband services and consumer rights. The FCC would be required to investigate whether broadband providers have adhered to its August 2005 policy that providers should refrain from blocking or interfering with Web content.

"The open architecture nature of the Internet ... has ensured the Internet's place as the greatest level playing field ever created," Markey said as he introduced the bill. "The goal of this bipartisan legislation is to assure consumers, content providers, and high-tech innovators that the historic, open architecture nature of the Internet will be preserved and fostered. [The bill] is designed to assess and promote Internet freedom for consumers and content providers."

A group of advocacy groups, as well as Google and Amazon.com, praised the bill, saying it is needed as recent news report have suggested Comcast is slowing its customer access to high-bandwidth applications such as BitTorrent. Comcast on Tuesday filed a document with the FCC defending its practice of engaging in "network management."

Petitions by advocacy group Free Press and online video distributor Vuze to have the FCC prohibit Comcast's traffic throttling "raise important issues about the ability of broadband network operators to engage in reasonable network management to ensure that their customers can enjoy a positive broadband experience," Comcast said in its FCC filing. "Network management is best left to the sound, good-faith judgment of the engineers and proprietors who run and own the networks and who are best able to remedy customer service issues promptly, rather than to regulation."

The FCC has no prohibitions against Comcast's behavior, the company argued. "Free Press mistakenly relies on the [2005 FCC] Internet Policy Statement as creating rules the commission can enforce," Comcast said.

But representatives of the Open Internet Coalition, including Free Press and Public Knowledge, praised the new Markey legislation, saying it would remove doubt about U.S. policy on blocking or slowing Web content.

In the last six months, Comcast and other broadband and mobile-phone providers have repeatedly tried to block content on their networks, said Markham Erickson, the Open Internet Coalition's executive director. Erickson called Comcast's Tuesday FCC filing "remarkable."

"It appears to declare war on Internet users, policy makers, and even the FCC," he said. "It essentially says that the FCC has no legal ability to protect consumers from discriminatory behavior."