Page 315 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Net Neutral ty

their decisions regarding Net Neutrality. Members of the House pressed FCC
chairman Kevin Martin to take a stronger position in support of Net Neutrality.
The hearing was the first time in three years that commissioners had appeared
before the subcommittee.
In May 2007, an “Ad Hoc Public Interest Spectrum Coalition” made a pro-
posal to the FCC on how the auction of the valuable 700 MHz spectrum should
be conducted. The 700 MHz spectrum can be used to offer wireless Internet
and the proposal asserted the auction should provide “new entrants (to) have
the opportunity to enter the market in competition with incumbent providers”
(see http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/962). The coalition includes the Con-
sumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, EDUCAUSE, Free Press,
Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and U.S. Public Interest Re-
search Group. As of June 4, a quarter-million people have contacted the FCC
urging the agency to use the 700 MHz spectrum to offer a more open and com-
petitive Internet service ecology.
On March 22, 2007, the FCC unanimously voted to seek public comment
on the possibility of adding a Network Neutrality principle to its 2005 Inter-
net Policy Statement. The comment period ended on June 15, 2007, and tens of
thousands of submissions were made.
In 2007, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack
Obama, and Bill Richardson, among others, all stated their strong support for
legal protections for Net Neutrality. Supporters were joined by GOP candidate
Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas), who told a collection of bloggers that Net Neu-
trality must be preserved.

see also Alternative Media in the United States; Blogosphere; Communication
Rights in a Global Context; Conglomeration and Media Monopolies; Digital Di-
vide; Internet and Its Radical Potential; Media Reform; Piracy and Intellectual
Property; Public Access Television; Regulating the Airwaves; Surveillance and
Privacy; Video News Releases.

Further reading: Cohen, Elliot D. Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal
Ax, and Why Corporate News Censored the Story (July 2005) at http://www.buzzflash.
com/contributors/05/07/con05238.html; Community Internet: Broadband as a Pub-
lic Service. FreePress May 2005 at http://www.freepress.net/docs/comminternetbro
churefinal.pdf; Communications Act of 1934 at http://www.fcc.gov/Reports/1934new.
pdf; Net Neutrality: Fact vs. Fiction. FreePress (May 2006) at http://www.freepress.net/
docs/nn_fact_v_fiction_final.pdf; The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda For
Action at http://www.eff.org/Infrastructure/Govt_docs/nii_agenda_govt.paper; Net
Neutrality, History. Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality#History;
Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860: Chapter 137, U.S. Statutes 36th Congress, 1st Session
(June 16, 1860) at http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Pacific_Telegraph_Act_1860.html;
Schiller, Dan. Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1999; Shooting the Massager. FreePress (July 2007) at http://www.
freepress.net/docs/shooting_the_messenger.pdf; Telecommunications Act of 1996,
FCC at http://www.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.pdf; U.S. Supreme Court to Hear
“Brand X” Case on March 29, 2005. Center For Digital Democracy at http://www.
democraticmedia.org/news/washingtonwatch/BrandXPR030705.pdf; Wu, Tim. Network