• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, May 7, 2008

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Tuesday urged Congress to pass net neutrality legislation aimed at preserving "the most level playing field for commercial opportunity ever invented."

"The wonderful thing about the Internet is that no one needs to ask anyone's permission to innovate, to get their voice heard, to launch a new service or business enterprise," Markey said.

Markey and Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) earlier this year introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2006 (H.R. 5353), which establishes a broad U.S. policy "to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by network operators." The measure also requires the Federal Communications Commission to hold broadband summits and report the results and recommendations to Congress.

Unlike a prior proposal that Markey sponsored, the pending bill only establishes broad principles and doesn't contain regulations spelling out that Internet service providers can't degrade traffic or otherwise discriminate against Web publishers.

But some leading net neutrality advocates still consider the bill a good compromise. "While I would prefer something stronger, I believe that this bill represents a very significant step in the right direction," Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott testified Tuesday during a House subcommittee hearing on the bill.

Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said his organization generally favors "marketplace solutions" to regulation, but nonetheless praised the portion of Markey's proposal that refers to "lawful" content. "H.R. 5353's distinction between lawful and unlawful activity must be the cornerstone of both private market discussions and public policy," he testified.

Bainwol also said the RIAA has been in talks with Internet service providers about strategies for dealing with online piracy, which the music industry believes has significantly cut into revenue.

Net neutrality has been the focus of other recent proceedings, including a Senate hearing and two FCC meetings. Much of that activity stemmed from revelations that Comcast was impeding traffic to peer-to-peer sites. Two weeks ago, FCC chair Kevin Martin told the Senate that the agency already has the authority to enforce net neutrality principles.