NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 6 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — A da…

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 6 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — A day in advance of the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on Network Neutrality, noted Vanderbilt Law School Professor Christopher Yoo, one of the nation’s leading authorities on
law and technology, today released his new study, “Promoting Broadband Through
Network Diversity,” which offers an in depth analysis of the network
neutrality principle. The study’s findings suggest that adopting network
neutrality as a public policy could hinder the Internet’s ability to evolve to
meet changes in technology and consumer demand and could create more problems
than it solves. In connection with the paper, Professor Yoo issued the
following statement:

“Network neutrality would lock the Internet into a one-size-fits-all
architecture that would only reduce broadband providers’ ability to manage
their networks and meet the increasingly varied demands that consumers are
placing on the Internet,” concludes Professor Yoo.

Professor Yoo explains: “The explosive growth in Internet traffic and the
emergence of time-sensitive applications, like streaming video and Internet
telephony, have greatly increased the problems of congestion. At the same
time, it has opened up new ways in which broadband networks can compete with
one another. At this point, it would seem imprudent to foreclose any
particular response unless and until some specific harm to consumers can be
shown.”

Professor Yoo continues: “Requiring that regulatory intervention be based
on a showing of actual, rather than hypothetical, harm to competition would
provide the room for experimentation upon which the normal processes of
economic progress depend. It also reflects an appropriate degree of humility
about regulators’ ability to anticipate which architecture will ultimately
prove best in a world undergoing rapid technological change.”

Professor Yoo’s paper can be found online at
http://law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/Yoo%20-%20Network%20Diversity%202-6-06.pdf.

Christopher S. Yoo has emerged as one of the nation’s leading authorities
on law and technology. His research focuses primarily on how technological
innovation and cutting-edge theories of economics are transforming the
regulation of electronic communications. He is also pursuing research on the
economics of copyright as well as a historical project on presidential control
over the administration of the law. Prior to joining the Vanderbilt law
faculty in 1999, Professor Yoo clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the
Supreme Court of the United States and Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and practiced under the supervision of
now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson in
Washington, D.C.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association asked Professor Yoo
to complete a paper exploring the impact of network neutrality and policy
options available to lawmakers after seeing his earlier work on the subject.
Professor Yoo agreed to do so and allowed NCTA to fund the project on the
condition that no one would influence his analyses or conclusions. NCTA
honored Professor Yoo’s request.

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