-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	[IP] Susan Crawford on ISPs as utilities
Date:	Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:35:24 -0400
From:	Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Reply-To:	dave@farber.net
To:	ip <ip@listbox.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joly MacFie
Date: Monday, August 27, 2012
Subject: [OIA] Susan Crawford on ISPs as utilities
To: Bruce Kushnick <oia@lists.bway.net>

Fundamentally, the carriers claim that they’re “speakers” under the First Amendment – just like The New York Times – and that therefore any regulation of them is unconstitutional. This is a breathtaking assertion that you will hear them repeat over and over again in the coming years. It is emphatically not true. They are utilities, like water and electricity, whose facilities were built using public assets and are subject to oversight and regulation. Both Congress and the state Legislatures have the power to tell them what to do. Without this oversight, none of the online companies in California would have been founded. The speech of three hundred million citizens in America is what’s important, not that of a handful of network owners. 

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