In a recent interview with Eric Schwartzman, IT Conversations’ Doug Kaye referenced an old explanation of the Internet: It’s a dumb network. It just gets bits where they’re supposed to go. The telecommunications industry wants to turn it into a smart network by routing paid-for traffic through faster pipes than content that hasn’t paid for the privilege. I wrote about this last month and pointed to a must-read document by Doc Searls.

Today, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden proposed legislation to keep the Net dumb. The goal was to ensure smaller startups couldn’t be pushed aside by larger ones (think Google or Yahoo) that could afford the access to the faster pipes.

Not surprisingly, Verizon doesn’t like the idea. From a Reuter’s report:

“People get nervous when they hear a member of Congress talk about regulating the Internet and America’s broadband networks,” said Verizon spokesman David Fish. “This is an attempt to fix a hypothetical problem that doesn’t exist.”

Right, no problem. Verizon is one of the companies that wants to charge services to use private Internet networks. I’m 100% behind Wyden’s bill. After all, what good is government if it doesn’t protect consumers and innovation? I’ll be writing my senator and congresswoman to let them know I want them to support the legislation.