Not unexpectedly, network neutrality is back on the legislative agenda. In response, two academics—David Farber from Carnegie Mellon University and Michael L. Katz from University of California at Berkeley—authored a thoughtful Washington Post column (“Hold Off On Net Neutrality”) on Friday. In it, they caution that unintended consequences could result from misguided legislative intervention.

The Internet needs a makeover. Unfortunately, congressional initiatives aimed at preserving the best of the old Internet threaten to stifle the emergence of the new one.... Network neutrality is supposed to promote continuing Internet innovation by restricting the ability of network owners to give certain traffic priority based on the content or application being carried or on the sender's willingness to pay. The problem is that these restrictions would prohibit practices that could increase the value of the Internet for customers.

Click here for the entire column. And click here, here and here for past posts in which we’ve expressed similar caution about network neutrality and argued that the marketplace—not legislation—should be the arbiter of what’s best for consumers and for the Internet’s future.