What is the Clayton Act you ask?  The Clayton Act is the name of the 1914 Antitrust legislation.  Two House Reps decided that the FCC might not be the best choice for ensuring net neutrality and have entered new legislation that modifies the Antitrust laws.

The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, is sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).  This bill is very similar to a bill by the same name pitched in 2006.  The main purpose of the bill  is to “promote competition, to facilitate trade, and to ensure competitive and non-discriminatory access to the Internet.”

The Act specifies that “it shall be unlawful for any broadband network provider … to block, to impair, to discriminate against, or to interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband network service.”  Meaning that the broadband network providers can’t prevent users from reaching any website or information (provided it is legal). 

The bill goes on to state that internet service providers (ISPs) can’t discriminate between their own company created content and content created by unaffiliated companies.  Nor can the ISP charge more for “prioritization or enhanced quality of service.”  The companies can still manage data primarily to continue the smooth delivery of services but they cannot manage data on the basis of origin and content.

As an amendment to the Clayton Act, these provisions would be enforced through antitrust law suits rather than by the FCC.  The FCC has long been the overseer of telecommunication companies, which is how it came to have some control over internet providers. 

Overall, this is an excellent piece of legislation that would prevent content blocking such as that committed by Comcast and would also prevent ISPs from filtering out content from other providers or competing companies.

This legislation needs to pass and hopefully will make it through both branches of Congress with overwhelming majorities to ensure that the internet remains accessible to everyone regardless of service provider or method of access.

Related:

The Senate stops the FCC

ISPs ignore Stanford hearing on network neutrality

Will Congress grant Internet radio a stay of execution?

The Internet war for money and control

MPAA and RIAA want universities to become copyright cops

Entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 3:07 pm under Internet, Legal.  Print This Post

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