Sohn To Bloggers: Target Inouye

Public Knowledge President Says Senator Has Failed to Advance Net Neutrality Legislation

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/7/2007 2:07:00 PM

Washington – The leader of an intellectual property rights group on Wednesday urged political and technology bloggers to “target” Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) because the Senate Commerce Committee chairman had failed to advance net neutrality legislation so far in 2007.

Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a group that supports federal regulation of broadband networks to ensure an open exchange between users and Web-based service providers, expressed disappointment in Capitol Hill Democrats, chiefly Inouye, for failing to hold hearings or move net neutrality aimed at cable and phone companies.

“Sen. Inouye, while he seems to be favorably inclined toward net neutrality, has just done nothing about it this entire Congress,” Sohn said on a conference call hosted by Free Press, a proponent of net neutrality regulation. “So he, in my mind, is the number one target because he controls the agenda.”

An Inouye spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment.

Sohn spoke on a call that was intended as a briefing on the effort to get the Federal Communications Commission to outlaw certain broadband network management practices used by Comcast, cable’s largest high speed Internet access provider.

“We’re about to go out for the year and there’s been hardly any hearings on anything quite honestly,” Sohn added.

Inouye, 83, became Commerce chairman in January as the Democrats gained majority control of the Senate after winning the November 2006 elections. Among other things, Inouye has used the panel’s time to oversee the Federal Communications Commission and the Bush administration’s management of the digital television transition, which is scheduled to end on Feb. 17, 2009.

A key House Democrat has not done much better, Sohn said.

“Ed Markey, in the House, obviously is a friend and the very best of friends, but he hasn’t had a hearing either,” Sohn said.

Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, held his first hearing, on March 1, on the future of the Internet. The only witness was Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Berners-Lee, a net neutrality backer, is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.