Rep. Markey's net neutrality legislation

A post from Google Public Policy discusses new legislation from Markey on net neutrality.

Here is the money quote, as far as I'm concerned:

"Net neutrality is too often painted as just about particular companies' competing interests, but that's missing the point. Rather, net neutrality and broadband policy are -- and should be -- about what's ultimately best for people, in terms of economic growth as well as the social benefit of empowering individuals to speak, create, and engage one another online using the wide panoply of innovations available to them. In other words, broadband policy should come from the bottom up."

To my eye - the legislation sets a good course. It could be stronger with respect to ensuring the providers don't clip the Internet's wings while its still developing. For me, the fear is crystallizing the Internet/Web too soon - solidifying the existing framework so that the ISPs can introduce bottlenecks they can monetize. ISPs can exploit the conflict of interest they enjoy when they provide both content and access. My perhaps impractical ideal is to fully separate provision of broadband connectivity from provision of content.