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Regulating our way to freedom? A new Congress may be tempted to add a new layer of regulation to the Internet. Robert Hahn on why there's no need to fix what isn't broken.

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Information wants to be free, or so it is said. But information isn't of much use unless people have access to it. And to Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), the powerful chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, the best way to insure that access is to add a new layer of regulation to the supreme purveyor of information, the Internet.

Earlier this year, Markey crafted a bill called (in the best Orwellian tradition) the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. And it offers some insight into how a post-election Congress may be inclined to take a far harder line on telecommunications regulation. For those of us who believe that the Internet has flourished largely because it is so lightly regulated, the prospect is more than a little disturbing.

So, what could be wrong with legislation that...

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