CIS ARGUES FOR OPEN ACCESS TO CABLE INTERNET SERVICES
On October 31st, the Center for Internet & Society filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit for the American Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon in Brand X Internet Services, et al. v. Federal Communications Commission. This landmark case will review the FCC's determination that cable Internet access is an "information service" rather than a telecommunications service.
Dial-up Internet access is a thriving, competive market providing lots of choice for consumers because telecommunications subject to common carriage requirements-- the phone company cannot have a monopoly on dial-up service. The ACLU brief argues that cable Internet access is telecommunications and should be regulated the same way. If it is not, as more and more consumers move to broadband, a few cable ISPs will control the market.
These ISPs have business reasons and perhaps ideological reasons to delay, monitor, or censor customers' Internet traffic, and will do so if there is no competition. Open access to cable Internet service so a consumer has a choice of cable ISPs will address this concern and preserve the benefits of the Internet's end-to-end, content-neutral architecture. The FCC should have considered the First Amendment interests in making its decision. There are no technical barriers to requiring cable companies to provide access to the cable system to competitors.
The ACLU brief urges the Court to reverse the FCC's decision. Director Jennifer
Granick, Fellow Elizabeth Rader and students Jennifer Elliott and Kalpana Srinivasan worked on the brief.