Porn News

Congressman Wants Telecom Overhaul

WWW- House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) wants a top-to-bottom overhaul of telecommunications law, saying that Internet technology and broadband distribution require an entirely new regulatory model.

“I believe that the best thing to do is just start from scratch,” Barton said Tuesday. “The broadband age is such that it doesn’t really fit easily into any of the existing categories and, so, we probably ought to just start over.”

Lawmakers are under pressure to craft a new law because current policies that apply different rules to cable and phone companies clash with the digital convergence of voice, video and data services over a single high-speed-data platform.

Although cable’s high-speed-data service is lightly regulated, major phone companies are required to provide access to competing Internet-service providers based on continued enforcement of rules that trace to the monopoly phone era.

Congress last revamped telecommunications law in 1996, on the eve of the Internet boom.

Barton’s sweeping approach represents a threat to the cable industry, which supports only limited changes to current law based on concerns that expansive proposals would introduce uncertainty into the market, especially among cable’s financial backers.

Barton, addressing the Federal Communications Bar Association, said it was possible that Congress might decide just to tinker with current law.

“Honestly, I just don’t think that works. I’m not saying we can’t do it that way,” he said.

Barton added that he is negotiating legislative details with Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). A draft bill should be ready in a few weeks, he said.

“We’d like to move it through the committee sometime this summer and get it ready to go to the Senate before the August break,” Barton added. “That’s a very aggressive timetable, and it’s a big, big issue.”

Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has said that technology has put pressure on telecommunications law, but he is uncertain if changes need to be made.

“I can’t tell you that we want to replace it or amend it, or what we want to do,” Stevens said last month. “I have no firm fixed view of what has to be done. We just know that there’s new technology coming, and that the ’96 act has already sort of become outmoded in the nine years that have passed.”

 

343 Views

Related Posts

Girlfriends Releases ‘Women Seeking Women 199’

All-girl studio Girlfriends Films has released the 199th volume of its flagship series "Women Seeking Women" via video-on-demand.

Dahlia Von Knight Steps Up Work With Blush Erotica VR, New Site

Dahlia Von Knight has taken on a new dual role as both cameraperson and producer to create VR content for BlushEroticaVR.com and her own upcoming platform, Sinner’s Vault VR, based in Las Vegas.

JD’s ‘Transgressive 26’ Arrives From Evil Angel

Director JD presents five scenes of intimately-captured TS action in his latest Evil Angel release, "Transgressive 26."

Evil Angel Releases JD’s ‘Transgressive 26’

LOS ANGELES — Evil Angel debuts the 26th volume of director JD’s “Transgressive.” The title stars Ester Meninea, Isabella Fiorella, Angel Marques, Grazyeli Silva, Elise Rodrigues, Kyra Sex, Alice Lucena, Kyra, and Husky Branco. “The Elise/Kyra/Grazy combo was a personal…

Creepy Paul Mulholland, Fake Journalist, Stalker

Paul Mulholland presents himself as a savior of vulnerable women, a self-proclaimed advocate exposing the “dark underbelly” of the adult industry. But behind the virtuous facade lies a...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *