Interview with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps: Net Neutrality

by: Matt Stoller

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 19:55

I went to the FCC for the first time today to interview Michael Copps, one of five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission.  I have a bunch of clips to put up.  We veered from the Pearl Jam incident to the history of net neutrality to the Wall Street Journal takeover to the role of the media reform citizens movement in changing how the FCC makes policy.

The first clip I'm putting up is on the history of net neutrality.  One of the key claims made the telecom companies is that the internet has never been regulated, and that net neutrality is a 'problem in search of a solution'.  In fact, this isn't true.  Net neutrality was the law of the land until 2005, but how the FCC gutted it is an important story as well as a demonstration of the clever ways that right-wing regulators unmake public policy through obscure procedural maneuvers.

Copps brings us through the details and confirms that net neutrality was the law of the land until 2005, and that the internet emerged under a neutral regulatory regime that is now gone.