The Future of Internet Regulation

by Phil Weiser [University of Colorado Law Legal Studies]

Policymakers are at a precipice with regard to Internet regulation. The FCC's self-styled adjudication of the complaint that Comcast had violated the agency's Internet policy principles (requiring reasonable network management, among other things) made clear that the era of the non-regulation of the Internet is over. Equally clear is that the agency has yet to develop a model of regulation for a new era. As explained in this Article, the old models of regulation-reliance on command-and-control regulation and market forces subject only to antitrust law-are doomed to fail in a dynamic environment where cooperation is necessary to effective competition and continued Internet connectivity by a range of actors. Thus, this Article calls for a new model of regulation built around the concept of co-regulation-a self regulatory body subject to public agency oversight and backstop-as the best strategy for Internet regulation going forward.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1344757