Net neutrality and the common carrier blues

_MG_4304_edited, originally uploaded by mbusolt.

The bill that would eliminate net neutrality provisions for broadband internet carriers will now go to the Senate. As attorney iocaste explains, it's deja vue all over again. It's not like broadband carriers are the first privately-held monopolies to attempt to discriminate amongst their customers for gain. Railroads gouged Western grain farmers, later truckers got in to the act.
Eventually the government created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC; 1887 - 1995).
Iocaste continues:

However flawed it may have been in practice, the ICC, and its heirs, were created to deal with precisely the problem that Congress seems bent on repeating: Large common carriers (railroads, telephones, etc) could discriminate in the provision of their services, thus furthering monopolistic ends. Regulation and rate-setting followed.

Perhaps time has come to consider a modern-day successor to the ICC . How 'bout it, Democratic leadership?

[Fantasy Life]

Comments

[GerwingR]

And the Winner Is:
A party line vote.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31315

[Strange Forces]

Those who do not learn from history are... uh... something. I dunno.

[santa]

Lindsay,

Did you realize that you have an ad for the telecom industry that leads to a page purporting to support consumer choice, etc., but which is really a front for the telecom industry? Go to the site, it is really misleading.
Democracy Now covered this scam.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Do I? I studiously ignore the content of my ads. I hope the readers do likewise. I'll check out that Democracy Now link. Thanks.

[santa]

Eh, just thought I'd mention it. I don't blog, but I've heard mention of a vetting procedure for ads and I thought you might want to revisit that one.

I normally ignore the ads, but they aren't there for no reason. You can't help but notice them, and that one seems particularly insidious. I rarely ever click on 'em, but I thought - Yeah, I'd like to view that banned ad by the evil cable companies while I sit here and finish my Wheaties. Now, if I didn't know better, I might find myself going "Yeah, I believe in consumer choice. This must have been linked to by Lindsay so that I could sign their little petition here."

That's all. I realize that these ads are a necessary "evil", but I thought you might like that one pointed out since net neutrality has become one of your talking points of late.

[GerwingR]

Net Neutrality Shot Down in the US
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2011