requirements under the Communications Act of 19962 that continue to apply to operators of phone lines. One such requirement is that all such traffic must pass over the telecommunications lines impartially and without interference of network operators. Today, however, most Internet access is received via cable, DSL, and wireless technologies—broadband Internet access that is not over telecommunications lines—and providers of broadband access are not subject to the same “common carrier” rules as telecommunications service providers. Thus, federal law no longer guarantees the preservation of a free and open Internet the way it did when Internet access was delivered via telecommunications lines. A second reason why net neutrality is no longer protected in the broadband Internet market stems from developments in network management technology. During the advent of the Internet, network operators were unable to distinguish details in the content that end users transmitted over networks. Now, through the development of “deep packet inspection” technologies, ISPs can look at the source of Internet content and inspect and shape each packet of information sent over their network. With this technology, ISPs “suddenly know a whole lot more about their users and their traffic. They also gain the ability to block, shape, monitor, and prioritize that traffic—in any direction.”3 This technology, combined with the fact that more network providers offer cable TV and phone service in addition to Internet access, means that ISPs can and have an incentive to slow or “throttle” Internet content that competes with their own services.4 A View from Washington: Agency and Congressional Efforts to Maintain Network Neutrality In 2005, after recognizing the growing threat to the Internet’s open architecture, the FCC developed the Internet Policy Statement5 that lists four principles of an open Internet. These principles are often summarized as (1) any lawful content, (2) any lawful application, (3) any lawful device, and (4) any provider. However, the FCC did not write the 2005 Internet Policy Statement into regulation at the time of creation. As such, in 2009, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to codify the four open Internet principles as well as two additional principles of (1) transparency and (2) non-discrimination—the lynchpins of net neutrality.6 Unfortunately, the FCC suffered a huge setback in this rulemaking process in RLI 273 11 The Importance of Net Neutrality to Research Libraries in the Digital Age ( C O N T I N U E D ) DECEMBER 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC