Copps at the Churchill Club: Ready for a Fight

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, speaking today to the Silicon Valley-based Churchill Club at an event co-sponsored by CDT, argued in very strong terms for bringing Internet access providers under regulatory oversight “to protect consumers and innovators from unjust and unreasonable discrimination.”  Copps warned that the “days of the Open Internet will be succeeded by the Age of the Gatekeepers” if the Commission fails to assert its authority.  

The FCC’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, has called for a “third way” of enforcing non-discrimination, applying a limited number of fundamental regulatory provisions to Internet access service.  CDT has welcomed this “lite” approach.  Copps made it clear that he would like to go even further.  

I won’t try to further summarize the Commissioner’s remarks.  His prepared text, which he stuck to closely, is online and you'll find photos and video from the event here as soon as they are posted online. All in all, it was a remarkable morning, offering in sharp terms one perspective on what promises to be an epic policy battle.