Net User Bill of Rights

June 21, 2006

I’ve said in the past that the sign of a balanced CRTC decision is one that equally annoys the incumbents, new entrants and consumer groups.

I don’t think the same measure can be used for legislation. A Senate Committee in the US has proposed the Communications, Consumers’ Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 and it promises to provide lots of fodder for my writings this summer.

Let’s start with the Consumer Internet Bill of Rights that appears 145 pages into the document:

SEC. 903. CONSUMER INTERNET BILL OF RIGHTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise provided in this title, with respect to Internet services, each Internet service provider shall allow each subscriber to:

  1. access and post any lawful content of that subscriber’s choosing;
  2. access any web page of that subscriber’s choosing;
  3. access and run any voice application, software, or service of that subscriber’s choosing;
  4. access and run any video application, software, or service of that subscriber’s choosing;
  5. access and run any email application, software, or service of that subscriber’s choosing;
  6. …

These are well meaning and they even sound good, until you stop to think a little bit about item (1): “access and post any lawful content…”.

What does it mean to allow each subscriber to post any lawful content of that subscriber’s choosing? To start with, it would invalidate Acceptible Use Policies and force ISPs into hosting content that they find to be offensive, unless it is actually illegal.

Extremists, purveyors of adult content and their ilk are interesting bedfellows for the ‘Save the Net’ crowd that are behind this provision.

In a non-digital world, this section says that the manager of a local grocery store would be forbidden from taking down ads for escort services that get posted on the community bulletin board at the store’s entrance.

Sounds to me like the store is losing control of their private property and their ability to apply discretion over the type of business they want.

Exactly which consumer’s rights are being defended in Section 903(a)(1)?

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