Wyden introduces Net Neutrality bill

Rep. Ron Wyden (pictured) has introduced a net neutrality bill, the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, to stop cable companies, telcos and other pipe owners from offering some companies and users preferred access to their systems, the Times reports.

"You best compete by letting every company play on a level field, but these proposals would tilt the field," Senator Wyden said of the plans discussed by some network operators. "The Net has been about access and equal treatment and giving everyone a fair shake, and people who own these fat pipes, these cable and telecommunications people who say that they can't keep doing this, want to undermine that."

He added that his bill would prevent network operators from giving preferential treatment to affiliated companies. Time Warner Cable, he said, should not be able to give other Time Warner companies better access to the network than their rivals.

 Nonprofit Public Knowledge immediately praised the bill, saying it will "preserve the open character of the Internet by preventing network operators from discriminating in favor of content, applications and services in which they have a financial interest."

For more on net neutrality, see also Lawrence Lessig's Congressional testimony (PDF).