As we recently noted, one of the early problems with the FCC's national broadband plan is that consumers are under-represented at the table, something that's not particularly new in DC. That was evident again last week when the FCC held a national broadband workshop on copyright. What does copyright have to do with getting broadband out to the unserved public? Absolutely nothing, but as Techdirt notes, it was the perfect opportunity for Hollywood to push Uncle Sam on the implementation of piracy filters and "three strikes" penalties for P2P users:Paramount's COO Frederick Huntsberry was given twice the time to speak as Gigi Sohn, a consumer advocate who's usually outnumbered 100 to 1 by telecom and/or Hollywood lobbyists at these events. It's ironic that an FCC that's priding itself on being transparent with this process wouldn't post an entertainment industry video on P2P use (containing nothing any twelve year old kid doesn't already know) on their website.

Sohn's speech is here, in which she suggests several blasphemous ideas if you're a Hollywood executive:Of course again you have to wonder why exactly protecting Hollywood's dying business models required a full FCC workshop, why Hollywood was treated differently than everyone else, and whether the FCC's really going to look at the entire wealth of opinions on copyright. Of course an under-represented public, preferential treatment to Hollywood, and a very narrow discussion of the evolution of copyright aren't particularly new.