Net Neutrality Bill in Congress

hip2b2 writes "The US Congress is finally doing something to prevent large bandwidth providers and network operators from charging (or putting restrictions on) competing web and other Internet media content providers. According to this NetworkWorld article, the new bill sponsored by Democratic Representatives Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jay Inslee of Washington state, Anna Eshoo of California and Rick Boucher of Virginia in the House and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon in the Senate. I am not a big fan of legislation, but, I hope this bill keeps the Internet a freer place." Here is our coverage of the first round.

Comments

This is what laws are _supposed_ to do.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I am not a big fan of legislation, but, I hope this bill keeps the Internet a freer place"

Is not the legislative branch of the US government the body that is supposed to be responsible for passing laws to protect our freedom and liberty?

The mere statement made gives me the impression that this type of thing is not the norm. And this makes me sad.

Not just content provider neutrality is at stake

[WatchTheTramCarPleas]

Evcer think about the possibility that not just content providers would have an advantage/disadvantage, but also the consumer's general access? Would it not be possible for Internet providers to give machines running a particular operating system (cough Windows), have a particular processor(ahem Intel), or come from a particular vendor (acch Dell) because these systems are "More capable of network operation" or some other lie like that. Something similar to the Skype/Intel thing a few weeks back (Slashdot) http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/04/143024 3