Congress addresses net neutrality
'Hannah' exec, House talk media consolidation
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Net neutrality involves the idea that all legal content and traffic should be treated equally and without discrimination, and each side either supports or opposes it for the same reason -- to protect fragile business models. The growing impasse is thus not likely to be resolved any time soon.
In a Tuesday hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet over a proposed bill intended to ensure open access to the Web, "Hannah Montana" exec producer Steve Peterman, speaking on behalf of the Writers Guild of America West, described the Internet as "the new TV" and the best of the diminishing opportunities for independent artists to reach a large audience.
Media consolidation over the last 15 years had reduced a once "rich marketplace of ideas" into a tightly controlled environment ruled by seven congloms that determine "nearly all of the information and content we see," Peterman said. "Because this small group now acts as producer, studio and network, there has been an inevitable stifling of creativity and diversity, and because they maintain a chokehold over distribution, there has been nowhere else for the creative community to go," he declared.
Peterman said the ready availability of the Web as an exhibition platform is appealing to many writers weary of "notes from 30 executives with no sense of humor. Unlike the current studio system, the Internet makes it possible for content creators to retain both ownership and control of the quality of what they create. The Internet also provides the audience -- the American public -- with a virtually unlimited menu of news, information and entertainment content from which to choose. But all of these bold new possibilities rely on Net neutrality."
Peterman said WGAW was therefore endorsing the proposed bill, called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would essentially codify the Federal Communications Commission's principles of Internet openness.
Movie studios and record labels have said they support equal and fair treatment of legal online content but oppose any attempt to enforce Net neutrality, fearing it would inhibit or prevent Internet service providers from policing their pipes for bootlegging.
Peterman tried to dispel that fear, saying that writers "are very much opposed to piracy" and that the bill would not inhibit online antipiracy efforts at all.
Recording Industry Assn. of America topper Mitch Bainwol disagreed with the last part, saying that his member companies "strongly prefer" marketplace dynamics over governmental regulation. Bainwol said RIAA members had been in encouraging and cooperative talks with ISPs about combating a shared problem: online traffic congestion, which is caused mainly by illegal file-sharing.
While chastising ISPs for once wooing subscribers with optimal transfer speeds for large files -- likely pirated -- Bainwol said, "They're in a much better place now." He said he could see the need for governmental intervention only if ISPs stopped cooperating on fighting piracy.
"We note that too many ISPs have turned a blind eye to online theft, all the while benefiting from the many subscribers who pay for broadband access primarily to steal music and other content," Bainwol said. "These ISPs would just as soon pretend that congestion was not fundamentally a problem directly connected to theft. And some prefer to cure congestion with greater (technological) efficiency -- solving their problem but compounding ours."
Bainwol said ISPs should continue to address all forms of piracy, not just those that clog their pipes. Otherwise, "regulation may be a necessary alternative," he said.
