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Will the FCC endorse filtering? - March 19, 2008

FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein gave the Hollywood studios some reason for concern but more reason for cheer in comments Tuesday on Net neutrality. Speaking at a reception on the eve of the Internet Video Policy Symposium (co-sponsored by Content Agenda) the commish said, “All of the Net neutrality proposals that have been promulgated include exemptions for illegal activity,” including the illegal downloading of copyrighted content. “The Commission’s policy statement [on net neutrality] applied to legal activities, not illegal activities.”

In other words, the MPAA, whose recent harsh denunciation of Net neutrality has been all the buzz in Washington telecom circles, is getting worked up over nothing.

“We have to be very careful about the use of the Internet for illegal purposes, and that includes the illegal downloading of copyrighted works, which is a very serious problem,” he said. “What we’re talking about is legal activity.”

So content filtering is OK? Not necessarily. “The problem is, how can you ever tell what’s illegal?” Adelstein said.

Coming at the question from a very different angle but arriving at something like the same place, acting director of the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration (an arm of the Commerce Department) Meredith Baxter said at her luncheon keynote at the symposium that the Bush Administration was strongly opposed to Net neutrality regulation.

"We endorsed the [Department of Justice's] filing on Comcast which said that unfettered competition is the best way to ensure a free and open Internet, not government regulation," she said.

One area, however, that does merit government attention, according to Baxter, is the promotion of intellectual property rights.

"It's difficult, but we have to keep working at [IP] enforcement," she said.

In other words, regulation is good if it protects commercial interests. Protecting citizens' access to information, apparently, represents an unacceptable intrusion into the market by government.

But then, you would have guessed the Bush Administration would say that.

Media Wonk will have more from the symposium in a later post.
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