The Online Retailing Alliance yesterday applauded the efforts of House Judiciary Committee H.R. 5417 for devising a new Net Neutrality bill that would prevent telecom companies from creating a tiered
system for distributing bandwidth over their networks. The Alliance, which includes the likes of Amazon, eBay, and IAC/InterActive Corp., said the committee's bill "wisely" recognizes that recent
court decisions and FCC actions show that a handful of Internet network operators now have control over the fate of the Internet, allowing them to engage in discriminatory behavior without
consequence. The group added that the new bill is "particularly timely" because another piece of legislation would have the opposite effect by impeding on the enforcement of discrimination practices
by network operators. It comes as little surprise that online retailers are siding with the likes of Google and Microsoft on this issue, because any publisher that relies on the Internet to sell
content, goods or services could be forced to dig into their pockets to ensure speedy delivery of their content to consumers--an added cost of business they would all like to avoid. Meanwhile, I've
lost count of how many versions of the Net Neutrality bill are floating around Congress; past actions (or inactions) would suggest this important issue will likely spill over to the next session.
Read the whole story at Internet Retailer »
