The Jeff Pulver Blog: My Worlds Collide on Capitol Hill Today

« Andy Abramson on the Vonage IPO | Main | More Kind Worlds... »

May 25, 2006

My Worlds Collide on Capitol Hill Today

The House Judiciary Committee held a Full Committee Markup on several pieces of Internet-related legislation , including H.R. 5417, the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006”; H.R. 4777, the “Internet Gambling Prohibition Act”; and H.R. 4411, the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006”. Internet Gambling and Net Neutrality -- two subjects I care a great deal about, but two subjects that have rarely been discussed in the same platform.

Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee held a Hearing on S. 2686, the Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006. We thought it would be sufficient for Jonathan Askin to cover the House Judiciary Committee Markup, given the fact that Staci Pies was going to testify at the Senate Hearing on behalf of the VON Coalition. Well, yesterday afternoon, the VON Coalition was removed from inclusion on the panel. So, the Senate was left with no one expressing the views of the Internet communications industry and the effects that the Senate Bill might have on the emerging industry.

In any event, Jonathan could not physically be in two places at once. He opted to sit in on the House Judiciary Hearing, given that the Senate Hearing was just another in a long line of redundant hearings on communications reform legislation with the same old, stuffed shirt, hired gun lobbyists, spouting the usual platitudes on communications policy. It would have been great to see someone speak for the would-be innovators and entrepreneurs, but, once again, that was not the case in the Senate.

***

The House Judiciary Committee kicked off with a heated discussion and introduction of a series of amendments on Internet Gambling.

The bills would serve to curb online gambling. To me, this is just another example of interfering with individual autonomy and the ability of the user to maximize the value of and control her own Internet experience. It gets increasingly confusing to me every time I hear an alleged advocate for Internet Freedom come out against specific instances of Internet Freedom, such as online gambling. Just give me a big broadband pipe and get out of the way, thank you. Stop trying to legislate my morality and worry about your own ethical transgressions, which have a much broader impact on society than whether or not I am playing poker online. And, get back to more important business, like making sure the Internet continues to transform society and revolutionize human interaction.

The debate on Internet Gambling was mostly beset with bad wordplay based on gambling and racing cliches: “I don’t have a horse in that race”, “I don’t want to beat a dead horse,” (which frankly might be in poor taste, given the events at Saturday’s Preakness), blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum.

***

Net Neutrality

Then the House Judiciary Committee got around to marking up and voting H.R. 5417, the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006”

As I have mentioned, the Judiciary Committee, composed of many champions of the Internet and competition, is coming from a very different place than the Commerce Committee. Chairman Sensenbrenner and Ranking Member Conyers both gave strong endorsement for Net Neutrality. The Committee voted in support of the legislation 20-13. Every Democrat voted for it, and a majority of Republicans voted against it. The bill uses antitrust law to enforce network neutrality. Given this and other dynamics, the chance of telecom reform legislation being passed this year continues to decrease.

Tags: Net Neutrality, Congress, Internet Gambling,
Jonathan Askin, Jeff Pulver

(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)

Share this post: