Government and the Net
Posted by Jacque on October 27th, 2007
Senators want Net Neutrality
Senators Bryon Dorgan and Olympia Snowe have sent a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, requesting a hearing for the discussion of phone and cable companies’ non-compliance with net neutrality, specifically Verizon, AT&T and Comcast.
Among other points, the letter says that the Committee needs to consider the issue of content discrimination and to investigate certain incidents further to determine if they were based on legitimate business and network management policies or are part of practices that would be deemed unfair and anti-competitive. They also need to determine whether current regulatory protections are enough. See Mashable for more information.
Senate passes Internet tax moratorium extension: 7 more years tax-free
Both houses of Congress are taking action as the ban on taxing Internet connections is about to expire.
Last night, the Senate passed a bill that would extend the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act yet again, this time for seven years. A version of the legislation passed by the House earlier this week would only extend it for another four years. Ars Technica has a full report.
Photo by jcolman. Creative Commons license.