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2 J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L. 141 (2003)
Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination

handle is hein.journals/jtelhtel2 and id is 145 raw text is: NETWORK NEUTRALITY, BROADBAND DISCRIMINATION TIM WU INTRODUCTION Communications regulators over the next decade will spend increasing time on conflicts between the private interests of broadband providers and the public's interest in a competitive innovation environment centered on the Internet. As the policy questions this conflict raises are basic to communications policy, they are likely to reappear in many different forms. So far, the first major appearance has come in the open access (or multiple access) debate, over the desirability of allowing vertical integration between Internet Service Providers and cable operators.1 Proponents of open access see it as a structural remedy to guard against an erosion of the neutrality of the network as between competing content and applications. Critics, meanwhile, have taken open-access regulation as unnecessary and likely to slow the pace of broadband deployment. This paper takes a more general perspective. The questions raised in discussions of open access and network neutrality are basic to both Associate Professor of Law, University of Virginia Law School. I am gratefil for comments on this paper from Tom Nachbar, Lawrence Lessig, Mark Lemley, Glen Robinson along with participants at the 2003 Silicon Flatirons Conference and the 2003 University of Ottawa Tory Law Speaker Series. The ideas in this paper were aided by discussions of network neutrality questions with individuals at the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, including Jordan Goldstein, James Assey, Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Michael Copps. 1. See generallyJoseph Farrell & Philip J. Weiser, Modularity, Vertical Integration, and Open Access Policies: Towards a Convergence of Antitrust and Regulation in the Internet Age, 17 HARV. J.L. & TECH. (forthcoming 2003), available at http://repositories. cdlib.org/iber/cpc/CPC02-035 (last visited Sept. 24, 2003); Glenn A. Woroch, Open Access Rules and the Broadband Race, 2002 L. REV. MICH. ST. U. DET. C.L. 719 (2002); Glen 0. Robinson, On Refusing to Deal with Rivals, 87 CORNELL L. REV. 1177, 1224-27 (2002); Mark A. Lemley & Lawrence Lessig, The End ofEnd-to-End Preserving the Architecture of the Internet in the Broadband Era, 48 UCLA L. REV. 925 (2001); Phil Weiser, Paradigm Changes in Telecommunications Regulation, 71 U. COLO. L. REV. 819 (2000); James B. Speta, Handicapping the Race for the Last Mile? A Critique of Open Access Rules for Broadband Platforms, 17 YALE. J. ON REG. 39, 77-90 (2000).

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