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Posts Tagged ‘Radio-Info’

Tom Taylor writes in his daily column for Radio-Info.com under the headline

“The fight over FCC regulation of the Internet hits Capitol Hill – and partisan politics”
The Dems generally see a role for the Commission to regulate broadband providers in the name of consumer protection. The Republicans – at least several Senators who spoke up at Wednesday’s Senate hearing – don’t think the FCC has the authority. This goes back to last week’s D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “Comcast” decision, which said the FCC couldn’t force the Philly-based media giant to treat all customers equally. (That’s also going to be called the “Bit Torrent” decision, because Comcast said it needed to choke down some traffic to extreme users of the file-sharing service.) The New York Times says Chairman Julius Genachowski now faces a strategic decision. He could choose to “re-classify Internet services as a utility similar to telephone service, to overcome the court decision.” Until the Bush Administration, the FCC did claim regulatory powers, under the theory that Internet services were akin to telephone service. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, basically told Genachowski this week “don’t do it”, because (in her words) “the legitimacy of the agency would be seriously compromised.” Why’s this important to radio? A lot of “radio” in the future is going to be consumed over the Internet. The question of who gets to set the rules about Internet traffic matters to radio – a lot.

Personally and professionally, I have mixed emotions about a regulated Internet. The idealist part of me wants the Internet to remain an eternally wild and open frontier for exploration and creativity. However, the skeptical adult businessman in me believes that sooner or later some cynical corporate entities will engineer the Internet version of a land grab and create barriers which can endanger the freedom of expression which it now offers. In an ideal world, business leaders would strive to create win-win situations but too often we’ve seen them turn corrupt and greedy with a sense of entitlement and a disdain for the customers they serve. Under that scenario, a watchdog like the FCC makes sense.

Your thoughts?

Your can read Tom Taylor’s columns at http://tinyurl.com/TomTaylor