Media Institute: Net Neutrality Regulation Is Bad Idea

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/14/2007 10:07:00 AM

Comments are coming into the FCC in response to its inquiry on broadband regulation, specifically what, if anything, it should do on the issue of network neutrality.

The Media Institute, for one, says it says regulation is a bad idea.

The institute, a media company-backed First Amendment think tank, argues that in the present marketplace, "there is no problem – no clear and present danger to the openness of the Internet – that requires regulatory action," saying that perceived harms, rather than actual ones, are fueling the drive for regulation.

The Institute argues that the FCC has transformed its four "goals" for network nondiscrimination in the provision of broadband service into "rights," and that even its contemplation of some type of regulator scheme to "protect and enforce these 'rights," is "little more than an exercise designed to expand regulatory clout."

The Institute essentially suggests turning those "rights" back into "goals," calling regulation a "solution in search of a problem."

The D.C. base Media Institute is backed by companies including NBC Universal, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, and Gannett.

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