Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and his Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will be holding a hearing tomorrow on H.R. 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008. The bill would direct the FCC to figure out exactly how many households get real Broadband service, as well as establish very basic Net Neutrality protections.
Who's testifying and why?
Steve Peterman, Executive Producer, Hannah Montana (against)
Mitch Bainwol, CEO, RIAA (against)
Kyle McSlarrow, CEO, NCTA (against)
Ben Scott, Director, Free Press (for)
Walter McCormick, CEO, USTA (against)
Christopher Yoo, CDT (against, academically)
Michelle Coombs, Christian Coalition (for)
Scott Savitz, Shoebuy.com (for)
The makeup of this all-star panel is pretty obvious. Big Media doesn't like broadband because it allows for new business models, so they're going to complain about how big pipes lead to piracy.
Big Telecom doesn't want Net Neutrality so they can charge Big Media for Big Bandwidth, and hit consumers a second time with tiered pricing and "preferred" content.
Those who are for it are pretty obvious. The black sheep? The Christian Coalition. Yeah, them. Surprisingly enough, they've taken a very, very strong pro Net Neutrality stance because they're worried about the censorship or slowing down of religious content, and possibly the rights of end-users (parents) to filter.
Strange bedfellows, eh?
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