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FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules
muggs sends word that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted 3-2 to approve an expansion of their ability to regulate ISPs by treating them as a public utility.
Under the rules, it will be illegal for companies such as Verizon or Cox Communications to slow down streaming videos, games and other online content traveling over their networks. They also will be prohibited from establishing "fast lanes" that speed up access to Web sites that pay an extra fee. And in an unprecedented move, the FCC could apply the rules to wireless carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint -- a nod to the rapid rise of smartphones and the mobile Internet. ... The FCC opted to regulate the industry with the most aggressive rules possible: Title II of the Communications Act, which was written to regulate phone companies. The rules waive a number of provisions in the act, including parts of the law that empower the FCC to set retail prices — something Internet providers feared above all. However, the rules gives the FCC a variety of new powers, including the ability to: enforce consumer privacy rules; extract money from Internet providers to help subsidize services for rural Americans, educators and the poor; and make sure services such as Google Fiber can build new broadband pipes more easily.
I hope so. The longer the fccstays the fuckout of t he Internet, th e better.
Your Fox News-supplied talking point has been debunked already, child. That was 8 pages of rules and the rest was background and justification.
I predict that all of you net neutrality supporters are in for a nasty surprise. Your hatred of Comcast and fear of what it might do has lead to the biggest restrictions on freedom since the Patriot Act, which at least had the excuse of 3,000 dead people.
But what’s the excuse here? Ooh, Comcast might charge Netflix more money? There might be “fast lanes” that cost more? Do you think George Soros spent $196 million on NN because he’s worried about Netflix? Of course not. You don’t need 300+ pages of regulations for just that. This whole thing is a Trojan Horse so that the government can get it’s fingers deeper into the internet. As soon as the regulations are available, search them for terms like “hate speech” and "disparate impact." This will be a mass of restrictions, requirements, taxes, subsidies, and pay-offs to favored groups. I'm sure trial lawyers will be happy, because there will no doubt be lots of new things they can sue about. I’m sure the FCC will administer this with all the fairness that the IRS has brought to regulating political advocacy non-profits.
And now that the regulations have changed, the NSA will have a freer hand with wiretaps.
Get ready for a shitstorm once Silicon Valley finds out what’s really in this.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Now that Federal Government is, once again, judging, what content is fair, a Department of Fairness can not be far behind. And who can possibly be against fairness?
And why not just call it Ministry of Truth? Nobody can be against truth either...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
You call a 4 page summary of 300 pages of regulations, released a couple weeks before the vote, "Open from the start" ?
This whole thing has been a tales they win, heads the people lose deal.
Reactions like yours demonstrate why it has become impossible to have any kind of intelligent discussion on the internet.
You have excluded every possibility except the truly horrible choice and the horrible choice and condemn anyone who doesn't praise the horrible choice.
I am posting this bill and I ask that all of you who think its great read it before spouting off out of ignorance. I am halfway through it and have serious reservations about this in fact I am saying congress needs to reign in the FCC for doing this. https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_pub...