New Legislation May Open The Door For FCC Regulatory Power Over Internet Content

[Commentary] We're all for making content better accessible for the disabled -- but we ought to be careful when it comes to mandating it and potentially opening up Internet content to the regulatory control of the Federal Communications Commission. A new bit of legislation being introduced by Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) would (among other things) give the FCC regulatory power to mandate that Internet video providers provide captions and a "video description" for the disabled. Basically, it would require "closed captioning" services for "major" video providers. On the face of it, this sounds well-meaning, but it's troublesome to suddenly give the FCC any sort of regulatory say over Internet videos. The FCC's mandate is supposed to be over scarce spectrum -- which is (or is supposed to be) managed as a public good. It's not supposed to have regulatory power over much beyond that -- though, obviously, things have changed over the years.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080606/0054361327.shtml