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Law and Technology Professor Releases Study on Net Neutrality
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- 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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Vanderbilt Law School Professor Christopher Yoo
CONTACT: Doug Thornell, +1-202-785-2100, for Vanderbilt Law SchoolProfessor Christopher Yoo
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