The Village Green

The FTC issued a report today on the issue of Net Neutrality. In a nutshell, the report says to go slow when thinking about enacting Net Neutrality policy.

Ars Technica’s coverage of the report is linked here:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070627-ftc-shoots-down-net-neutrality-says-it-is-not-needed.html
While the headline seems sensationalistic, the coverage provides 5 specific areas where the FTC will be paying close attention, including demand, effectiveness, degredation, capacity, and response.

The Federal Trade Commision press release is linked here:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/06/broadband.shtm

The FTC press release does a nice job of describing some of the actual issues that comprise Net Neutrality, “…including data prioritization, exclusive deals, and vertical integration into online content and applications…” It is also interesting to note that a separate statement was issued by Commissioner Jon Leibowitz who said, “The Report also soberly reminds us that regulation often has unintended side-effects. That surely is true. But is seems to me equally clearly that this Report shows that doing nothing may have costs as well.”

It seems to me that waiting to enact policy or legislation until such time as “significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm” is proceeding with too much caution in an area that is too important to the future of the Internet in the US.

The report itself is linked here:
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/broadband/v070000report.pdf