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Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill To Restore Net Neutrality in California; the Trump Administration is Already Trying To Block It (nbcnews.com)

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law on Sunday a bill to restore net neutrality protections that President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission killed late last year. From a report: The new law prohibits internet service providers, or ISPs, from blocking or slowing access to legal online content, demanding special fees from websites to prioritize their traffic or charging customers for special exemptions to caps on their data use. Brown signed the measure without comment, setting up almost certain showdowns with both ISPs and the FCC, which barred states from setting their own rules in its repeal last December of protections instituted during the administration of President Barack Obama. The U.S. Justice Department quickly filed a federal action in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to block the new law Sunday night. In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: "Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce -- the federal government does. Once again the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy." Brown also signed A.B. 1999, which makes it easier for local governments to build community broadband and offer competitive high-speed fiber.

11 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Isn't this largely symbolic? by Altrag · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's a bit of a dangerous tack to take.. the obvious rebuttal is that the internet is international and the feds have no right to regulate it either.. I mean I know the US is horribly egocentric and doesn't like thinking of other countries as having rights or sovereignty.. but they do and it's a possible argument that Calif could bring up to counter the internet being "interstate"

  2. Re:Kavanaugh is toast by whoever57 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think Kavanaugh is toast, he lied to Congress (boofing is taking drugs up the ass, not farting. devils triangle is a threesome with a blind drunk/drugged woman not a coin game),

    The entitled prick lied in a much clearer fashion: he claimed that his drinking was legal while he was in high school. Unfortunately, it's easy to find how old he would have been when the state of Maryland increased the drinking age from 18 to 21 [he was 17 at the time].

    But he isn't toast yet. He will be confirmed. The only question is whether the Dems will have the balls to impeach him (assuming they get the seats in both houses).

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    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  3. Re:Isn't this largely symbolic? by sg_oneill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not sure whats happening atm on legal weed, but a lot of the success came from the Obama Administration ordering the DEA to not to interfere with States that want to do their own thing.

    Heres the big irony about all this;- The GOP likes to talk big game about "State rights", but apparently that only applies to states that dont piss off the GOPs party donors.

    Really, its "Party donor rights over you" that are advocated for not state rights.

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    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  4. America's internet is a joke by jd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's one of the slowest in the world - Britain has faster and I swear they still use cans and string - and one of the most expensive, whilst also being one of the most restrictive.

    Comcast gets away with shutting down rivals by cutting their cables. Does anyone think you'd get away with that in Europe?

    Verizon ignores an agreement on unlimited traffic in an emergency, placing lives at risk. I don't care about excuses and I don't care if they don't like Monday's. Deliberately placing state and federal workers in danger is what the beltway sniper did.

    California isn't even making a dent in this, California is only drawing a line and saying things can't get worse in a few rather restricted ways. If California was serious, it would build a municipal Internet and damn the corporate sector. What's the Fed going to do, invade?

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    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. Re:Kavanaugh is toast by Jzanu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's the alcohol fueled serial rapist part that's the problem for Kavanaugh, that and his gambling addictions, and his violation of oaths about telling the truth, and his violations of as a US district judge (the whole text, really) due to hyper partisanship and disregard for the rights of others.

  6. They didn't think it through. by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember all those arguments the FCC made for giving up regulatory power over the internet so they could remove rules they didn't like?

    Well, this is what you asked for... no federal regulation. They just didn't think through the part where that left the door open for states to enact their own regulations.

    Suck it, Ajit.

  7. State's Rights? by Comboman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How come Republicans are have such a hard-on for states rights when states do something evil like voter suppression but change their minds when they do something good like cannabis legalization or net neutrality?

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  8. Re: Isn't this largely symbolic? by sg_oneill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok to expand on this. Personally I think there's a pox on both the houses. The republicans voted in a borderline lunatic who claimed he'd "drain the swamp" then filled his entire cabinet with lobbyists and Wall Street crooks and has spent his entire time gazing in the mirror and throwing tantrums because being a public servant is not the same as being a CEO. The dems hadthe *perfect* candidate in Bernie and then fucking sabotaged him and put the washington superwonk Hillary in on the assumption the Press would never accept a guy like Bernie , ignoring the sizeable resentment amongst the public towards her (some of it, ridiculous admittedly but still it was there). So a pox on their houses.

    However when it comes to state rights , the Democrats are at least honest. Both are authoritarian centeralizing powers , but the Dems don't pretend not to be about federal rule.

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    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  9. "State's rights" aren't about states rights by sjbe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How come Republicans are have such a hard-on for states rights when states do something evil like voter suppression but change their minds when they do something good like cannabis legalization or net neutrality?

    Because "States rights" when the GOP uses it almost never has anything to actually do with States rights. It's a bullshit political argument used for unjustifiable positions (slavery, racism, voter suppression, etc) use when they don't have a real leg to stand on in an argument. It's an admission that they are philosophically bankrupt on the topic and are trying to distract from this fact by loudly touting a (usually) dubious technicality.

  10. Re:Kavanaugh is toast by Gilgaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If he had fessed up about drinking too much in his youth, he'd be fine. It is fibbing about it in official testimony that gets the security clearance guys nervous. You can have done a lot and still get cleared if you're honest about it and it wasn't very recent.

  11. wrong; they are manipulating lawyers by bussdriver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This FALSE LOGIC gets pushed for any business large enough to exist outside a state. If you want to sell CARS in CA you follow their laws; it is not their problem if your business has troubles with that and bitches... unless the nation becomes too fascist and the bitching turns into bigger government...

    Net Neutrality is all about THE LAST MILE. You can't get more local than that!

    These are not interstate tariffs; this is a connection service; like the local power, phone, trash, or delivery companies!

    Yes, ALL their propaganda applies to any multi-state business. They won't touch things they like; such as Texas lowering the quality of school textbooks nationwide...