Net Neutrality

FCC adopts net neutrality rules
Federal Regulators have issued new rules that ultimately will affect how Americans access videos over the Internet and how carriers charge for content. The 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday strikes a balance between Silicon Valley content creators, who use digital networks to deliver their virtual wares, and the cable and telephone companies that want to sell their own content and services to customers in addition to hooking them up to the World Wide Web. The new rul...

FCC adopts net neutrality rules
Federal Regulators have issued new rules that ultimately will affect how Americans access videos over the Internet and how carriers charge for content. The 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday strikes a balance between Silicon Valley content creators, who use digital networks to deliver their virtual wares, and the cable and telephone companies that want to sell their own content and services to customers in addition to hooking them up to the World Wide Web. The new rul...

FCC: Yup, we're going to stop "paid prioritization" on the 'Net
The Federal Communications Commission is releasing the details of its new Net Neutrality Order in stages. Although the FCC's new ban on "unreasonable Discrimination" for wired ISPs allows certain kinds of traffic discrimination (not all bits need be equal), the agency made clear after today's meeting that "paid prioritization" deals with Internet companies are unlikely to be allowed. Critics had worried that the new Order would only affect outright website blocking, leaving paid prioritization u...

Al Franken: The Internet as We Know it Is Still at Risk
In today's Net Neutrality action by the Federal Communications Commission there's good news and bad news. The good news is that, thanks to Commissioners Copps and Clyburn -- not to mention a nationwide network of Net Neutrality Activists -- the proposal approved today is better than the original circulated by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. For instance, the FCC has now stated that it does not condone discriminatory behavior by wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T; -- an important piece th...

Breaking: FCC Passes Net Neutrality Rules
Update 2, 11.35 am Pacific: On a 3-2 vote, the FCC passed “Controversial” rules on Net Neutrality today. From Politico: Led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Democrats on the panel voted Tuesday to approve the first enforceable Net neutrality rules, which will prohibit Internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from blocking access to lawful content and websites. The small print: no public copy of the rules “until later in the week.” The rumo...

Why we should be worried about "net neutrality"
The FCC's decision yesterday to grab for itself the power to regulate the Internet through so-called "Net Neutrality" rules is the latest grab for Federal Government power over private industry. There wasn't any big demand for such Regulation. The Internet has grown from the small source it was in the beginning to be the wonderful source that it is today through private companies investing and competing with each other. But that isn't good enough for the Democrats on the FCC. They want more cont...

FCC Net Neutrality Ruling: What Does It Mean For You?
Are some versions of the Internet more equal than others? The Federal Communications Commission passed its first-ever Regulation of the Internet today, in a Net Neutrality Compromise that saw its 3-2 vote split sharply along party lines. The full text of the new regulations will not be published until later this week, but the broad strokes of the deal are now known. There will be two sets of regulations governing the way an Internet service provider is allowed to control your access, depending o...

The FCC: A Regulatory Vigilante
In a bold move that will be taken by many as a refudiation of the message of Limited Government voters in the Midterm Elections sent to Washington, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, by a 3-2 vote, adopted rules of “Net Neutrality” to regulate the Internet despite there being considerable doubt whether it had the legal or statutory authority to do so. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said “it is essential” for a “strengthened FCC” to fulfi...

Obamas FCC: Move aside, peasants, were in charge [Darleen Click]
John Fund points out this is just the beginning The Net Neutrality vision for government Regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications Professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr. McChesney’s agenda? “At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies,” he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. “But the ultimate goal is to ...

Wonkbook: Stopgap budget passed; America moves West; net neutrality rules move forward; food safety bill moves to Obama
The FCC has passed Net Neutrality rules, reports Cecilia Kang: "The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to approve its first ever Internet access Regulation, which ensures unimpeded access to any legal Web content for home Internet users. The FCC's three Democratic members made up a majority of votes in favor of the so-called Net Neutrality Regulation, which was introduced more than a year ago by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The rules have sparked intense debate and lobbying over...

Sleepy Agency Causes Stir
The FCC is in many ways a typical federal agency that makes decisions impacting all of our lives but doesn't draw much public attention until it does something Controversial. Tuesday's unanimous decision to improve and expand 911 services to include text messaging and video streaming was buried by a contentious 3-2 ruling placing greater Regulations on Internet providers. Chairman Julius Genachowski tried his best to downplay any disagreement over the commission's Net Neutrality order. "Today,...

Divided FCC Adopts Rules to Protect Web Traffic
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By Joelle Tessler, Associated Press In this file photo made March 12, 2010, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is interviewed at his office in Washington. New rules aimed at prohibiting Broadband providers from becoming gatekeepers of Internet Traffic now have just enough votes to pass the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, file) Washington (AP) - A divided Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules ...

Divided FCC adopts Internet rules
By Jasmin Melvin WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:09pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided Federal Communications Commission banned Internet service providers like Comcast Corp from blocking traffic on their networks, provoking warnings the rules would be rejected in the courts and threats from Republican lawmakers to overturn them. The 3-2 decision on Tuesday highlighted a huge divide between those who say the Internet should flourish without Regulation and those who say the power of high-sp...

'Net neutrality': ObamaCare for the Web
Michelle Malkin When Bureaucrats talk about increas ing our "access" to x, y or z, what they're really talking about is in creasing exponentially their control over our lives. As with the government Health Care takeover, so with the newly approved government plan to "increase" Internet "access." Call it Webcare. By a vote of 3-2, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday adopted a Controversial scheme to ensure "Net Neutrality" by turning unaccountable Democratic appointees into meddli...

Net Neutrality Vote: Twitter Users As Divided As FCC
On Tuesday, the FCC voted to adopt a framework that aims to preserve an "open Internet" by prohibiting Internet service providers from discriminating in how they handle information traveling over their networks. "The rules," according to the AP, "require Broadband providers to let subscribers access all legal online content, applications and services over their wired networks -- including online calling services, Internet video and other Web applications that compete with their core businesse...

The Real Story behind Net Neutrality
I hesitated about writing about Net Neutrality. It seemed to be covered by everyone. However, this is nothing less than shocking. I urge everyone to read the expose in its entirety. Click on the Wall Street Journal link embedded in the story. Behind the innocent-sounding name and expressed aims of the FCC’s Net Neutrality initiative, voted in by the Commission yesterday by a 3-2 partisan vote, is a very sinister leftist agenda. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal has done excellent work r...

Looks like net neutrality ruling will come shortly
The rules are set to win passage in a vote Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission, after a majority of the panel's five members said they planned to vote in favor of the measure. The proposal, pushed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, seeks to add teeth to a principle known as Net Neutrality, which calls for all legal Internet Traffic to be treated equally. It means that a cable company such as Comcast could not slow traffic of Netflix video, while a wireless carrier such as V...

FCC expected to enact internet access rules today - Strongest move yet to ensure Facebook updates, Google searches and Skype cal
Federal Regulators are poised to enact Controversial new rules affecting Internet access, marking the government’s strongest move yet to ensure that Facebook updates, Google searches and Skype calls reach consumers’ homes unimpeded. Under the regulations, companies that carry the Internet into American homes would not be allowed to block Web sites that offer rival services, nor would they be permitted to play favorites by dividing delivery of Internet content into fast and slow lane...

Four takes on why net neutrality matters
In Internet time, things change fast. Google is moving into television. Wikileaks is changing the paradigm of international relations. Newspapers, movies, radio and TV are all available on handheld devices. And the FCC is poised to act on far-reaching rules of the road for the Internet. Four new books offer different maps of this territory from different angles, none capturing completely the thin line we tread between information utopia and a preprogrammed cultural dystopia. One book, Internet A...

The Net Neutrality Coup
Human Events: The Federal Communications Commission has voted to impose the Controversial “Net Neutrality” Regulations on the Internet, by a vote of 3-2. It was a partisan vote, three Democrats against two Republicans. “Controversial” isn’t really the right word for Net Neutrality. “Reviled” would be more appropriate. As a Fox News op-ed from Americans For Prosperity president Phil Kerpen points out, the Regulations have no support in Congress, the American People

'Net neutrality' rules to protect web competition
Internet providers are barred from restricting how customers use their service even if it means allowing competitors to run rival services under new rules adopted by US Federal communications Regulators. The rules are intended to promote "Net Neutrality" and have the backing of the White House, but immediately came in for condemnation by Republicans who said investors would be discouraged from putting money into providing Broadband services. The rules were agreed by the Federal Communications Co...

Divided FCC adopts rules to protect Web traffic
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Regulators adopted new rules Tuesday to keep the companies that control the Internet's pipelines from restricting what their customers do online or blocking competing services, including online calling applications and Web video. The vote by the Federal Communications Commission was 3-2 and quickly came under attack from the commission's two Republicans, who said the rules would discourage investments in Broadband. Prominent Republicans in Congress vowed to work to ove...

Goodbye Free Internet: 'FCC Gives Government Power to Regulate Web Traffic'
WASHINGTON—Federal telecommunications Regulators approved new rules Tuesday that would for the first time give the Federal Government formal authority to regulate Internet Traffic, although how much or for how long remained unclear. A divided Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal by Chairman Julius Genachowski to give the FCC power to prevent Broadband providers from selectively blocking web traffic. The rules will go into effect early next year, but Legal Challenges or acti...

Rep. Marsha Blackburn Promises to Undo FCCs Internet Regulations
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a longtime advocate of Internet freedom, said she’s undaunted by the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to adopt Net Neutrality rules. Instead, she thinks the FCC’s action will be a catalyst for renewed commitment on the issue in the 112th Congress. “What we will do is first use this as a way to show how we’re going to keep that Pledge to America,” she said yesterday at The Heritage Foundation. “We said in the Pledge that an

No constituency for Network Neutrality compromise
As much as I support it, I freely admit that Net Neutrality is never going to be an issue that will rank highly in the minds of voters. It just won’t. People certainly care about access to the Internet, but Internet specific regulartory practices will never appear on any list of top national priorities. Ever. The only people who will care about Net Neutrality to the point of translating their beliefs into electoral Activism are highly engaged consumer Activists and corporate interest grou...