Regulatory Comments

Policy Comments of ICLE and TechFreedom, In the Matter of Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet, FCC

Summary

“No one’s against an open Internet. The notion that anyone can put up a virtual shingle—and that the good ideas will rise to the top—is a bedrock principle with broad support; it has made the Internet essential to modern life. Key to Internet openness is the freedom to innovate. A truly open Internet would preserve for all players the right to experiment with innovative content delivery methods and business models.

In the face of rapid technological advance, evolving consumer demand and Internet usage, demonstrated investment incentives and the dearth of demonstrated neutrality problems, the best approach would be to maintain the “Hands off the Net” approach that has otherwise prevailed for 20 years. That means a general presumption that innovative business models and other forms of “prioritization” are legal. The Internet doesn’t need a host of new prescriptive rules and prior restraints on innovation. What it needs is humility about the limits of central planning: The FCC should take an error-cost approach, carefully and rigorously evaluating the tradeoffs from intervention, recognizing that the unintended consequences of over-inclusive rules may be far worse than the demonstrably successful status quo…”