CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR,CRITIC ADVISES NEUTRALITY SUPPORTER

摘要

The history of railroad regulation suggests that net neutrality regulation could backfire on supporters and further tilt the playing field toward incumbents, critics said at a Cato Institute event on the Hill. Tim Lee, a Ph.D. candidate with the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, and Jerry Brito, an adjunct law professor at George Mason University, said the shame and market effects of clear violations of net neutrality are more effective than preemptive legislation or FCC rules, which could create and entrench unintended consequences. The cozy relationships that developed between the Interstate Commerce Commission and the railroads it regulated could foretell the results of net neutrality rules, Lee said. Created to prevent railroad discrimination against passengers and small companies, the commission was quickly coopted by railroad interests and used to limit competition and raise prices, eventually earning a rebuke from consumer activist Ralph Nader, he said.