House Takes Up Net Neutrality Debate - Page 2

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Nearly everyone in the debate agreed that ISPs have the right to manage their networks to ensure that their general level of service to subscribers is not degraded by downloaders who suck up an inordinate amount of the ISP's bandwidth.

Within the boundaries of reasonable network management, however, opinions vary about the impact the so-called bandwidth hogs have on the overall effectiveness of the network. There is also broad disagreement over what portion of network traffic utilizes the P2P architecture, with estimates ranging from in excess of 80 percent to below 40 percent.

Any discussion of P2P traffic raises the question of piracy. The bill distinguishes between lawful and unlawful Internet traffic, giving ISPs the right to block illegal downloads, the big record labels have come out against Net neutrality legislation.

At today's hearing, Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, told the lawmakers that piracy had brought the music industry to the brink of crisis, and that legislation could not solve the problem quickly enough. Instead, he argued, the record industry needed to work together with the ISPs to combat privacy through unregulated network management.

Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a public interest group that has been leading the charge for Net neutrality legislation, urged against framing the discussion around piracy. Nothing in the bill would prevent ISPs from blocking pirated downloads, spam, child pornography or any other form of illegal content, just as they are free to do so now.

But Scott and other supporters of the bill warned against a non-neutral Internet where ISPs could sign exclusive or preferential deals with content owners or Web merchants promising favorable delivery of their own traffic while unfairly disadvantaging the competition.

The concern that independent content producers or startup ventures would be fighting an uphill battle for Internet distribution against larger incumbents.

When asked about the business appeal of such side deals, McCormick said that he was not aware of any in the past, but said that "It would be a mistake to prohibit innovative partnerships."