Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Fights to Protect Broadband Subscribers from Telecommunications Robber Barons.

Without broad public support, this is a long shot, but expanding the Clayton Act to prevent discrimination in broadband service provision would be a huge boon to residential and business users throughout the country. With the major manufactures who supply equipment to the telecom incumbents recently throwning their support behind the telecom incumbents position (is anyone surprised?), protecting the public from corporate excess is of growing import. In much the same way that the original Clayton Act was a direct response to the Robber Barons of the Industrial era, much like Claton upgraded the Sherman Act, a new revision is certainly necessary to curb the malfeasance of todays Telecom Robber Barons.

From today's Benton Headlines:

SENSENBRENNER OFFERS NEUTRALITY BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced a bill Thursday that would apply antitrust sanctions against cable and other broadband-access providers that discriminate against Web-based providers of content, services and applications. The bill would amend the Clayton Act to require broadband-access providers to interconnect their facilities on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms; to operate their networks in a nondiscriminatory manner so that unaffiliated content, service and applications have an equal opportunity to reach consumers; and to refrain from interfering with consumer access to lawful content, services and applications. Under the Clayton Act, passed in 1914, injured parties may sue in federal court to obtain an injunction, recover treble damages and collect attorneys’ fees.

"This legislation is a necessary step to protect consumers and other Internet users from possible anti-competitive and discriminatory conduct by broadband providers,” Rep Sensenbrenner said of the bill offered the bill with bipartisan support from his panel's ranking Democrat, John Conyers (Mich.), and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.). Sensenbrenner’s statement said he came forward with his bill because the House Commerce bill (H.R. 5252) fell "well short of ensuring that broadband-network providers do not abuse their market power.” Amazon.com, eBay, Google, InterActiveCorp, Microsoft and Yahoo! issued a statement in support of the Judiciary bill (H.R. 5417).

From: www.multichannel.com

Sensenbrenner Intros Net Neutrality Bill: www.broadcastcable.com

Politicos propose new action on Net neutrality: news.com.com

Consumer Groups Applaud Bipartisan Bill on Network Neutrality: www.freepress.net