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Verizon Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Rules

Posted by Soulskill on from the you're-not-the-boss-of-us dept.

The Washington Post reports that Verizon has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission over the net neutrality rules they adopted last month. Quoting: "Verizon argues that the FCC does not have the legal authority to mandate how Internet service providers treat content on their networks. A legal challenge was widely expected, and the FCC has said it thinks Congress enabled the agency to pursue its rules under several interpretations of telecommunications laws. The FCC's rules are supported by consumer groups and Web giants such as Google and Facebook. Verizon filed its case in the same federal court — the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia — that ruled last April that the FCC overstepped its authority in trying to sanction Comcast for blocking Web traffic. 'We are deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself,' said Michael E. Glover, Verizon's senior vice president and deputy general counsel. 'We believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers.'"

5 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Verizon is correct by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The FCC has authority over the public EM spectrum (as given to them by Congress) such as radio. They have no authority over private cables owned by private companies purchased by private homeowners. Nor do they have authority to censor content on the private cables.

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    1. Re:Verizon is correct by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Informative

      They have no authority over private cables owned by private companies purchased by private homeowners.

      Yes they do, because those same cables rely on poles and underground tunnels on public land, and in some cases were built with public subsidies, and are considered a public resource. The FCC also has authority over land-line phones for similar reasons.

      Nor do they have the authority to censor content on the private cables.

      They are proposing no such thing. Net neutrality takes away the power of private cable companies to censor content, but it does not give the government authority to do so.

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    2. Re:Verizon is correct by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Considering it was the FCC who allowed broadband providers to not be subject to the same rules and regulations that phone providers are, it would seem that the FCC does have the authority. If you tell someone they aren't subject to X rules, then obviously you do have the power to dictate what they can or can't do or you wouldn't be able to tell them what they can or can't do.

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  2. Re:Of course they did by Moryath · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We, as consumers, wholeheartedly support the FCC and net neutrality.

    We pay for our bandwidth. We are tired of the shyster games that the ISP's play.

    We are tired of being told that it's "in our interest" that 90% or more of us can get only one ISP because decades ago our county or city sold the area off to one fucking cable company as a monopoly.

    We are tired of being told that this is "the free market at work" when there is no fucking competition for service.

    We are tired of the content cartels playing stupid fucking games like wanting to block or reduce speeds to competing services (youtube, hulu, etc) and then telling us "but it's ok, you can pay $EXTORTION each month for our shitty-quality, pixelated as hell 'on-demand video' service if you also buy our cable package at $MONOPOLYEXTORTION/month prices."

    And we heartily invite Verizon, and the rest of the companies like them, to GO FUCK THEMSELVES.

  3. Re:Of course they did by madhatter256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Weren't we all 'against' this version of FCC's net neutrality??? It wasn't exactly what most people wanted, and it only passed because it appeased to cable lobbyists (ie. ATT, Level 3, etc.).

    As the net neutrality rules were about to be passed, this was posted on slashdot: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/21/1510232/Obama-FCC-Caves-On-Net-Neutrality which pointed to this article -> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/obama-fcc-caves-on-net-ne_b_799435.html . Sorry I don't know HTML....

    What I don't get here is that a lot are praising the net neutrality and are against Verizon, but if you read through that earlier slashdot post, a lot of people were against this version of Net Neutrality because it really didn't give that freedom we wanted, not all of it, and nowhere near it..... I wonder what changed since the rules by FCC have not changed...

    Just thought I'd point out this old slashdot article out..

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