FCC Claims Regulatory Power Over Home Computers

Pointing to Assistant Professor of Law Susan Crawford's blog, iman1003 writes "The FCC has filed a brief where it claims regulatory power over all instrumentalities, facilities, and apparatus 'associated with the overall circuit of messages sent and received' via all interstate radio and wire communication according to a blog published by Susan Crawford. The blog can be found here and the brief here (in PDF format). Kind of scary if you ask me." Ars Technica has good commentary on this, also referencing Crawford's findings.

Comments

Their entire argument is fallacious at best

[EmagGeek]

"Congress hasn't said that we DON'T have the power to do this, so we're going to go ahead on the assumption that we do."

Uhhh, that's not the way the government works. A government agency must be given the authority to regulate by Congress, which is ultimately accountable to the People. A government agency can't just do whatever the hell they please just because they feel like it. They must have a mandate and be granted Congressional authority to do so.

Re:THIS IS ZERO NEWS!!

[Fulcrum of Evil]

ALL of them have an FCC logo

You mean the logo indicating that the equipment in question doesn't spew excessive EM interference? That's different. Apparently, the FCC wants to regulate the content of your communications.