Slashdot Mirror
Net Neutrality Supporters Hammered In Elections
Pickens writes "Gigi Sohn writes in the Huffington Post that one of the results of the mid-term elections was the defeat of Representative Rick Boucher, the current Chair of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, widely recognized as one of the most tech-savvy and intelligent members of Congress, and long an advocate for consumers on a wide variety of communications and intellectual property issues. Boucher has been the best friend of fair use on Capitol Hill writes Sohn. In 2002, 2003 and 2007, Boucher introduced legislation to allow consumers to break digital locks for lawful purposes, a fair use exception to the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and while the odds against that legislation passing were always great, Boucher understood the symbolic importance of standing up for consumers' rights to use technology lawfully. 'As important, he served as a moderating force both on the House Energy & Commerce and Judiciary Committees against those many members of Congress willing to give large media companies virtually everything on their copyright wish lists.'"
For Internet service, you can separate the delivery service (wires or cable) from the service that connects that "last mile" to the Internet.
That requires serious and prolonged regulatory intervention to achieve, though. You need regulation of the services provided, their prices, repair and maintenance on the shared facilities, and this all needs to be enforced somehow. Otherwise you end up in a situation where non-incumbent providers cannot compete because it costs them more to offer services than the incumbent provider charges customers for them, or because their customers' lines mysteriously don't get repaired when they break.