Silver Spring, Maryland (US): Freedom-to-Connect (F2C), an annual rally and pep-talk by and for the Internet intelligentsia, generated predictable rhetoric about the dangers of incumbent telephone company domination over the emerging Internet industry. Net neutrality was a key theme but the underlying motivation throughout the event was the search for ways to keep the Internet open for unpredictable new services. “A network neutrality law is a tactical, practical, strategic and philosophical error,” said Martin Geddes, director of Telepocalypse. “It takes us further away from freedom to connect.”

Former FCC chairman Michael Powell, now an investment banker and consultant, noted that Congress’s technological illiteracy plays to the strengths of the telco behemoths.

“Regulatory battles are an art form and these guys are maestros,” said Powell. He suggested that starting new networks that might attract private funding and assure innovation and access. Otherwise, he said, “You run the risk of collapsing into the 100-year old monopoly.”

Representative Rick Boucher, the only member of Congress to sit on both the Judiciary and Commerce Committees, said he would seek to assert Judiciary Committee review over the incumbent telcos’ efforts to establish their own net neutrality restrictions. He indicated that such actions could trigger anti-trust as well as potential copyright issues, which fall to the contentorientated Judiciary Committee. Report: Gary Arlen