TIMELINE AND OVERVIEWOctober 27, 2009

1860

Pacific Telegraph Act guarantees “messagesreceived . . .shall be impartially transmitted in theorder of their reception”.

20th Century

1860

FCC rules cable broadband providers are information services and do not have to share their lines with competing ISPs.

20th Century 2002002002002

Supreme Court Brand X Internet Services ruling upholds FCC 2002 ruling.

FCC Adopts Net Neutrality Principles

JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE 2005200520052005

MARCH2005

FCC Fines SmallISP for blocking access to VOIP

Canadian ISP blocked access

to pro-union website and

other sites during labor

dispute

JULY2005

AUGAUGAUGAUG2005200520052005

AT&T Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr.November 2005 :

• Pro-Competition/Pro-Innovation

• Key to Internet Success

• ISPs want to be be gatekeepers

- stifle competition and innovation

Arguments for Neutrality

- stifle competition and innovation

- power to discriminate

. Website: http://www.savetheinternet.com

Major Corporate Players: Amazon, earthlink,

eBay, Google, Vonage, Yahoo!

Tech Groups and Thought Leaders: Bill Moyers, Craig Newmark, Harvard BerkmanCenter, Professor Lawrence Lessig, Tech Net

Selected Newspapers: New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury Press

AdvocatesAdvocatesAdvocatesAdvocates

Unions and Major Associations: AAARP, American Civil Liberties Union. American Library Association, Christian Coalition of America. Common Cause, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Environmental Defense Institute, Feminist Majority, Free Press, Gun Owners of America, Moveon.org Civic Action, SEIU

Celebrities: Moby, REM, Alyssa Milano

Arguments Against Neutrality

• Internet has succeeded because of absence of

regulation

• Proposal would reduce incentive for investment in

broadband infrastructure and deployment.

– Invitation to litigation

• Broadband network providers need ability to control • Broadband network providers need ability to control

access to manage bandwidth needed to assure quality

of their own video and other services

– Video content and VoIP will increase demand for bandwidth

– Google, eBay and others want to “shift the financial burden of paying for these upgrades onto the backs of ordinary consumers.” – Mike McCurry – Co-Chairman, Hands Off The Internet.

Website – http://handsoff.org

Major Corporate Players: 3M, AT&T, Comcast, Time-Warner, Verizon

Tech Groups and Thought

Leaders: NetCompetition.org, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology

Selected Newspapers: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times

OpponentsOpponentsOpponentsOpponents

Times

Unions and Major Associations: Communications Workers of America, American Conservative Union, National Association of Manufacturers

Net Neutrality Scorecard 2006

Capitol Hill &

Home Court Advantage

Internet v. Telecom/Cable

Campaign Contributions 2004-2006

$8,000,000

$10,000,000

$12,000,000

$0

$2,000,000

$4,000,000

$6,000,000

ebay

Yaho

o

Goo

gle

Amaz

on

SBC

Bell Sou

thVe

rizon

AT&T

Intern

et T

otal

Teleco

m/C

able T

otal

Note: Industry total represents the combined total of the companies listed and not the industry as a whole.

Welcome to the Big Leagues

Warning Signs

• Discrimination– Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is

charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers in order to "enhance" competing Internet telephone services.

– Comcast, Cox block BitTorrent

• Censoring– Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that

mentioned www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

– AT&T censors political comments made by Pearl Jam in concert webcasts

• Anti-Competitive– Cox Communications has been disrupting access

to Craigslist over its broadband Internet network, while Bell South has reportedly disrupted access to MySpace.

• Gate Keeping– ISPs begin to discuss tiered or metered service.

Oct 09: FCC Unanimously

moves to begin process to

formalize Neutrality Principles

and Extend to Mobile Platforms

Oct 09: Calling FCC action a

“government takeover of the

Internet” Sen. McCain

introduces legislation to block

FCC from acting

Supplemental Supplemental

MaterialsMaterialsMaterialsMaterials

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22444.pdf

http://www.lessig.org/blog/2008/04/testifying_fcc_stanford.html

Bennet Kelley founded the Internet Law Center in 2007 after a decade of activity in many of the hottest internet issues including behavioral targeting, cyber squatting, net neutrality, privacy, spam and spyware. Prior to launching the Internet Law Center, Bennet worked in-house with companies such as ETM Entertainment Network, SpeedyClick.com, Hi-Speed Media and ValueClick.

Bennet is Co-Chair of the California Bar's Cyberspace Committee and has played a leading role in shaping Internet law and policy.

Bennet Kelley

and has played a leading role in shaping Internet law and policy. Bennet testified before the California Senate Business & Professions Committee on its landmark 2003 spam legislation and was praised by the House Energy & Commerce Committee for his contributions to federal spyware legislation. He also launched an initiative through the Cyberspace Committee to develop a cyberspace primer for incoming state legislators.

In addition, Bennet has extensive political experience that includes serving as National Co-Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Saxophone Club (its young professional fundraising and outreach arm) during the Clinton era and being an award winning political columnist for Huffington Post.

bkelley@internetlawcenter.net

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