Today the D.C. Federal Appeals Court hears Verizon’s challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s “Open Internet Order” — better known as “net neutrality.”
Hard to believe, but we’ve been arguing over net neutrality for a decade. I just pulled up some testimony George Gilder and I prepared for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in April 2004. In it, we asserted that a newish “horizontal layers” regulatory proposal, then circulating among comm-law policy wonks, would become the next big tech policy battlefield. Horizontal layers became net neutrality, the Bush FCC adopted the non-binding Four Principles of an open Internet in 2005, the Obama FCC pushed through actual regulations in 2010, and now today’s court challenge, which argues that the FCC has no authority to regulate the Internet and that, in fact, Congress told the FCC not to regulate the Internet.
Over the years we’ve followed the debate, and often weighed in. Here’s a sampling of our articles, reports, reply comments, and even some doggerel:
- “CBS-Time Warner Cable Spat Shows (Once Again) Why ‘Net Neutrality’ Won’t Work” – by Bret Swanson – August 9, 2013
- “Verizon, ESPN, and the Future of Broadband” – by Bret Swanson – Forbes.com – June 4, 2013
- “The Internet Survives, and Thrives, For Now” – by Bret Swanson – RealClearMarkets – December 6, 2010
- “Reply Comments to the FCC’s Open Internet Further Inquiry” – by Bret Swanson – November 4, 2010
- “Net Neutrality, Investment, and Jobs: Assessing the Potential Impact on the Broadband Ecosystem” – by Charles M. Davidson and Bret T. Swanson, Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute, New York Law School, June 16, 2010
- “The Regulatory Threat to Web Video” – by Bret Swanson – Forbes.com – May 17, 2010
- “Reply Comments in the FCC Matter of ‘Preserving the Open Internet’” – by Bret Swanson – April 26, 2010
- “What Would Net Neutrality Mean for U.S. Jobs?” – by Bret Swanson – February 5, 2010
- “Net Neutrality’s Impact on Internet Innovation” – prepared for the New York City Council – by Bret Swanson – November 20, 2009
- “Google and the Problem With ‘Net Neutrality’” – by Bret Swanson, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2009
- “Leviathan Spam” – by Bret Swanson – A whimsical take on “Net Neutrality” – September 23, 2009
- “Unleashing the ‘Exaflood’” – by Bret Swanson and George Gilder, The Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2008
- “The Coming Exaflood” – by Bret Swanson, The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2007
- “Let There Be Bandwidth” – by Bret Swanson, The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2006
- “Testimony For Telecommunications Policy: A Look Ahead” – testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee – by George Gilder – April 28, 2004
— Bret Swanson
