Slashdot Mirror
Ajit Pai Helped Charter Kill Consumer-Protection Rules In Minnesota (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A court ruling that limits state regulation of cable company offerings was praised by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, who says the ruling supports his contention that the FCC can preempt state-level net neutrality rules. The new court ruling found that Minnesota's state government cannot regulate VoIP phone services offered by Charter and other cable companies because VoIP is an "information service" under federal law. Pai argues that the case is consistent with the FCC's attempt to preempt state-level net neutrality rules, in which the commission reclassified broadband as a Title I information service instead of a Title II telecommunications service.
The ruling was issued Friday by the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, following a lawsuit filed by Charter Communications against the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC). A three-judge panel ruled against Minnesota in a 2-1 vote -- the FCC had filed a brief supporting Charter's position in the case. "[F]ederal law for decades has recognized that states may not regulate information services," Pai said in response to the ruling. "The 8th Circuit's decision is important for reaffirming that well-established principle: '[A]ny state regulation of an information service conflicts with the federal policy of non-regulation' and is therefore preempted." Pai said the ruling "is wholly consistent with the approach the FCC has taken under Democratic and Republican Administrations over the last two decades, including in last year's Restoring Internet Freedom order." The commission says the reclassification should preempt any such attempts at regulating broadband at the state level.
The ruling was issued Friday by the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, following a lawsuit filed by Charter Communications against the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC). A three-judge panel ruled against Minnesota in a 2-1 vote -- the FCC had filed a brief supporting Charter's position in the case. "[F]ederal law for decades has recognized that states may not regulate information services," Pai said in response to the ruling. "The 8th Circuit's decision is important for reaffirming that well-established principle: '[A]ny state regulation of an information service conflicts with the federal policy of non-regulation' and is therefore preempted." Pai said the ruling "is wholly consistent with the approach the FCC has taken under Democratic and Republican Administrations over the last two decades, including in last year's Restoring Internet Freedom order." The commission says the reclassification should preempt any such attempts at regulating broadband at the state level.
Does this scumbag ever leave out an opportunity to screw customers?
Goofy desirap attempts didn't get him the job, sucking corporate cock and screwing the consumer got him the job. NOBODY SHOULD BE SURPRISED, the fuck did you think Trump hired him to do? He's a WHORE, duh.
but that sort of implies the slightest attempt to hide what they're doing. Hell, this is what the voters wanted. Less regulation. Well, consumer protection rules are regulation folks. And we just got less of them.
I'm sure the savings will trickle down eventually...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
... VoIP is an "information service" under federal law.
Then federal law is wrong.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
We all already know Ajit Pai is a scum bag big ISP shill. We really don't need to hear it again.
The states definitely have control over right-of-way on all land within the state. States can always remove pole/digging access from anyone that doesn't comply with Net Neutrality. If VoIP is an "information service" then a Title I company does not have a legal right to pole access if they are not providing a real dial tone on the copper.
I wish that techies would QUIT trying to force net neutrality. It will solve NOTHING. The far right wants to make it so that the companies that lobby them (i.e. bribes them) wins out.
As such, the ONLY way to win at this, is to push local govs to add fiber utilities. For most states, it means passing laws that allow this. Some states like Colorado have the law and just need to have local govs vote on it. What is interesting is that nearly all attempts have passed. So, if techs REALLY want to make difference, just target the cities in which net neutrality has been violated. Once businesses realize that they can lose all their customers and profits in an area, they will stop. In the mean time, by pushing local gov fiber, we gain with G speed and much lower costs.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
One needs to look for the root cause, which is the whole current Republican regime. It's corrupt from top to bottom.
They'll say – and more importantly, they'll do anything – to hold on to power. They'll gerrymander. They'll lie. They'll cheat. They'll steal. They'll stop at nothing.
Everyone who thinks voting is pointless. That their vote doesn't count. That nothing will change. Get the fuck out and vote in November. Kick these assholes out.
We can stop them. The power to do it is in the ballot box. Crawl over broken glass if you have to, but just go vote.
Law applied as written, according to ruling by Federal judges.
You wanted the law to be violated? You wanted Federal judges to disregard the law? You wanted the FCC Chairman to be on the losing side — arguing against what the correct legal interpretation turned out to be, according to judges?
Or what? What should everyone involved have done differently?
They've never been about states rights other than if the states want to strip away federal constitutional rights from people. "Tyranny of the majority" is the GOP's middle name, right after "grabbing them by the pussy."
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
That's the beauty of Democracy - don't like something, get YOUR representatives elected to change the law. The only way to get the corporate butt muntchers out Capital Hill is campaign finance reform - at the State level, across enough states to get changes voted in Nationally.
If you can't do that, it's plunders away.
Ban charter from the state. Not sure it is legal or proper but it would sure feel good.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
And if he doesn't, just vote the OTHER corporate whore in next time, that's gonna change something.
Face it, this political system is pretty much like the Machine in Zak McCracken where you can of course pull the switch and make the power go from full to the left to full to the right, with exactly the same result. The main difference is that Zak feels dumb for doing it. Apparently he's smarter than most of the US population.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Hey, guess what, a shit pile is also posting on /.!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Except they haven't been a majority at any time in the past 30 years.
No, you could say "tyranny of the minority" is the GOP's middle name. Or just shorten it to "tyranny".
You are welcome on my lawn.
Tyranny of the majority (or tyranny of the masses) refers to an inherent weakness of majority rule in which the majority of an electorate can and does place its own interests above, and at the expense of, those in the minority. This results in oppression of minority groups comparable to that of a tyrant or despot, argued John Stuart Mill in his famous 1859 book On Liberty.
Potentially, through tyranny of the majority, a disliked or unfavored ethnic, religious, political, social, or racial group may be deliberately targeted for oppression by the majority element acting through the democratic process
Tyranny of the majority is used commonly by conservatives to pass laws that infringe on sub-groups rights, whether directly or indirectly. Often when the courts throw out social conservative laws, the GOP screams "judicial overreach" when it's actually just the courts telling them they can't infringe on peoples rights.... that the tyranny of the majority will not stand. We've seen it with civil rights, interracial marriages, sodomy laws, same-sex marriage...they pass laws that infringe on peoples constitutional rights, and they do so more often than not through states because of the smaller voter bases. Conservatives want all their rights, but they don't want anyone else to have any.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
The ruling is plain wrong. It fails the duck test.
From a consumer standpoint, VOIP looks like POTS, walks like POTS and quacks like POTS. It should therefore be regulated like POTS.
Not to mention that many ISPs require killing your POTS if you want their broadband service.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Different circuit court, so perhaps not. Different details on the law, so perhaps not.
OTOH, it would be reasonable to prohibit use of public right of way (i.e. poles) to any company that did not adhere to net neutrality. Or a tax to subsidize other carriers that did provide it. Or lots of other possibilities. All there needs to be is the political will to do so, and the possibilities are nearly endless. This has been said before, long since: "The power to tax is the power to destroy.". The implication that this is always bad is unfounded...but it surely often is.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Here's the kicker, VOIP services fall under what the government has started classifying as critical infrastructure. Some states have different rules than at the national level and as far as I know, they cannot be bypassed without the provider being hit with a multitude of fines. It sounds like MPUC needs to go at regulating VOIP as regulating critical infrastructure, that should solve their problem.
Obama-era net neutrality rules were to regulate internet as Title 2 telecommunication services buddy. Ajit Pai wants them to be Title 1 information services. You seem very confused about the whole situation, maybe you should stick to something you can understand.
The USA isn't divided. The morons on both sides are united in their hatred for each other over pretty much nothing, while anything in the middle has simply gotten apathetic because they noticed that a two party dictatorship still does not offer you any choice, so why bother pretending to choose something?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Choice is still at the local level. You choose to vote for tax levies or against, them. You vote for a helmet law or against it. You vote for a bond issue or tax break to an arsewipe corporation in exchange for the promise of jobs, or you vote against it. Majority wins. If the majority are to ignorant to look long term, too poor to look beyond hand-to-mouth or just don't care, the fools win. sound familiar?
And you really think that any of this changes anything? Hey, maybe next week we get to vote on whether the first lady's dress is going to be teal or brown when they go abroad and sign away some more jobs to the benefit of some large corporations.
What we'd need to be able to decide about is whether those damn jobs go overseas!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.