Comm Comm Hearing 2/7/06 Net Neutrality

[TayTay]

I'm not sure what 'Net Neutrality' means, but I find it vaguely disturbing.

Net Neutrality
Full Committee Hearing
Tuesday, February 7 2006 - 10:00 AM - D-562

Webcast: Click here to view a live webcast of this hearing. http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1705
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) have scheduled a Full Committee Hearing on Net Neutrality for 10am on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 in room 562 of the Dirksen Building.

Panel 1:

Mr. Vinton Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Mr. Kyle McSlarrow
President and CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association

Mr. Walter McCormick
President and CEO, United States Telecom Association

Mr. Jeffrey Citron
Chairman and CEO, Vonage

Panel 2:

Mr. Kyle Dixon
Senior Fellow and Director of the federal Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics, The Progress & Freedom Foundation

Mr. J. Gregory Sidak
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Mr. Lawrence Lessig
Professor of Law, Standford Law School

Mr. Gary Buchula
Vice President for External Affairs, Internet2

*********************

Oh great! This could be the hearing at which we start to hear how bad it is to have free-range political opinions floating around the web and how damaging it is to 'real 'muricans' to let them libruls out of their pens and out into the world. I am apprehensive about this one. Or it could be about the planned corporate take-over of the web by the telecom companies and their desire to use the web to just 'sell us stuff.' Either way, I am kind of scared of this one.

[globalvillage]

1. I'll bet this one makes C-Span 3.

It's about content copyright and open-access issues.
NCTA stance is anti-reg, and McSlarrow will be there, so this should be good.

[TayTay]

3. GV: Can you provide and English translation for that?

I didn't get it on the first go round. :wtf:

[Noisy Democrat]

2. Net neutrality is vital

Apparently some of the big corporations (Comcast, Verizon, etc.) want to provide internet connectivity in which the content provided by their own affiliates is put through faster, and content by other people is put through slower or not at all. Net neutrality means that all data is put through equally, regardless of where it originated. Without it, we won't have the internet as we know it; we'll have subscriptions to Comcast or AOL or Verizon, etc.

[globalvillage]

4. I'm afraid I will have to recuse myself from this one.

Just one quote from the NCTA before I go.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association disputes the need for regulation, calling net neutrality "a solution in search of a problem" and stating that "we agree that consumer access to Internet content is, and should be, full and unfettered."