Will the FCC Regulate the Net?

Lam1969 writes "Computerworld's Robert Mitchell wonders if the FCC could one day have regulatory power over the Internet. The causes? As telephone calls are increasingly delivered as an IP service, and traditional telephony fades away, traditional telephone companies are demanding a level regulatory regimen for all service providers. From the article: "Assuming that the FCC buys arguments such as this, we could see a new regulatory focus on the Internet and a decline in the hands-off attitude shown in the past. From the regulators' viewpoint, the Internet increasingly may be viewed as just another utility that requires oversight.""

Comments

Re:Geek revolt

[cerelib]

No, they can't. They could however end up regulating all traffic into or out of the United States like some smaller countries do. I hope this does not happen, but that is one possiblitiy. When smaller countries do this, the only ones really affected are the residents of that country. If the US did this that would affect a good deal of the world community due to the amount of Internet services and Internet users centered in the US. The US can't force the world to learn English, but we are doing a pretty good job at it.

Consider this, though

[lawpoop]

With all this talk from various Baby Bells about how they will provide different levels of service for traffic originating from someone other than their customers, we might actually *want* a little regulation in the future.

Before the FCC was co-opted by the Religious Right AKA the American Taliban, they actually did things like shut down pirate radio stations and make sure that the phone company actually provided the service they were legally obligated to provide.

Obviously, I don't want the FCC keeping my internet porn from me, but if some routers in the middle are slowing my downloads because I'm not their direct customer, government regulation might be a solution.