Law Commons^™

Network Neutrality: Justifiable Discrimination, Unjustifiable Discrimination, And The Bright Line Between Them, Noel Semple

Law Publications

This paper proposes a bright line test to guide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (‘‘CRTC’’) in regulating ‘‘network neutrality’’. When Internet service providers seek to discriminate between uses and users in administering their networks, the CRTC should ask whether the proposed discrimination is a reasonable effort to make the price paid by each user commensurate to the demands which his or her use places on the network. Discrimination which meets this description should be tolerated if not actively encouraged, because it encourages the economically efficient allocation of scarce bandwidth. All other forms of ISP discrimination— including discrimination based on …