Goverment Internet Regulation Passed

[C0FFINCASE]

Splitting along party lines, the five-member Federal Communications Commission approved new regulations Tuesday that effectively designate the federal agency an Internet traffic cop.

The vote culminated months of contentious negotiations involving government officials, industry lawyers, and advocacy groups and seems likely to lead to legal challenges.

Reactions to the new rules ranged from "tepid" to potential "economic nightmare." Comcast Corp., one of the nation's largest broadband providers, said the rules appeared to strike a "workable balance" between competing interests.

Comcast and other telecommunications companies have said Internet regulations could stifle innovation and investment. Supporters of the new rules said they would protect consumers and smaller companies from the actions of telecommunications giants seeking competitive advantages by disrupting the Internet traffic, or prioritizing the traffic of one website over another.

Three Democrats, led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, voted for the rules. Two Republicans voted against them.

As part of the vote, the agency also affirmed that providers may charge subscribers based on how much data they consume, according to Bloomberg News. The pricing issue has become more important as Netflix Inc. and others stream movies, TV shows, and other data-hungry content over the Internet.

The three new specific rules say companies have to more fully disclose information on the speed, performance, and commercial terms of their broadband service, cannot block websites, and cannot "discriminate" in how they treat Internet traffic. But in what some consider a potential loophole, broadband providers are allowed to engage in "reasonable network management" on the Internet.

The new rules do not extend to wireless services, such as those offered by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which advocacy groups criticized as a mistake.

David Cohen, Comcast's executive vice president, said the new rules "appear intended to strike a workable balance between the needs of the marketplace for certainty and everyone's desire that Internet openness be preserved." Cohen added that a benefit of the new rules may be that the federal agency did not enact stricter measures such as rate-setting.

David Joyce, an investment analyst with Miller Tabak & Co., said he did not see a negative to Comcast's business because of the new rules.

Republicans have voiced concern over regulatory creep, and Republican commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Atwell Baker voted against the rules. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has said previously she could cut off FCC funding to enforce them.

Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications, said in a statement that the rules were not based on bipartisan support and broke with past practices.

"Based on today's announcement, the FCC appears to assert broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband wire line and wireless networks and the Internet itself," Tauke said. "This assertion of authority without solid statutory underpinnings will yield continued uncertainty for industry, innovators, and investors. In the long run, that is harmful to consumers and the nation."

Exempting wireless services from the new rules was a mistake, said Gigi B. Sohn, president and cofounder of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Knowledge.

"Those who go online with a wireless device will be at the mercy of the big telephone companies to practice whatever mischief they wish," Sohn said. "Cell phones and smart phones are the fastest growing and a major Internet on-ramp for poor Americans."

With the time-consuming Internet rule-making over, the FCC is expected to turn its attention to an exhaustive review of the proposed $30 billion joint venture between Comcast and NBC Universal Inc.

~Taken from the Philly Inquirer

tltr: The government is allowing the people that censor stuff on tv to control internet content(powers are loosely defined and whoever the president is will set agenda basically for now) and approved the idea that internet companies can bill you based on the bandwidth you use, i.e. you use torrent or netflix they charge you more because of it, and lastly broadband companies are allowed to "manage their networks" which means they can make sites that pay them more load quicker and other sites load slower.

[Chad]

This is a bunch of bull shit. All they really want to do is monitor what everyone is doing and when. Trying to make the internet more safe? My ass. They're just scared of the public getting knowledge because knowledge is power. Hey look, there goes more of a freedoms. Thank you senators and other politicians that don't have the same laws as us!

"Those who want security over freedom deserve neither."

Edit: When I tried to post this my modem went out. Kind of ironic.

[C0FFINCASE]

Very. It'll take a little while for the FCC to begin doing any thing and most likely at first they'll just monitor and do nothing but yeah eventually doors are going to be knocked down and any one that does any thing deemed "wrong" will be hauled off to some undisclosed location. I'm fairly confident I'm already on an FBI watch list or two for my views and willingness to express them. I can't wait to see what happens when the government starts to tighten its grip. If they stay true to their original plan then they're going to create another internet when the government rules and leave this one behind. You'll pay a fee to access the ungoverned internet and placed on a list but it'd be worth it in my mind. Of course they may scrap that and just start placing security cameras in our houses as well as watching our internet activities.

[Souleater]

Soviet America anyone? I think this idea is retarded. All it is gonna need is one good hacker that is untraceable and the entire Governed Internet thing will go down the drain.

[Beyoncé]

You are all just mad because now they'll see your illegal activity.

[Shell]

You are all just mad because now they'll see your illegal activity.

This is a infraction of out civil rights.

[Beyoncé]

This is a infraction of out civil rights.

if you have nothing to hide then who cares. It doesnt say in the bill of rights that the government cant go through your computer

[C0FFINCASE]

if you have nothing to hide then who cares. It doesnt say in the bill of rights that the government cant go through your computer

The Supreme court has interpreted several amendment, namely the Fourth one involving search and seizure, as meaning every US citizen has a right to privacy and the government nor and individual is allowed to invade your privacy. So actually there is a right that says the government won't do that, in the eyes of the government. In theory as soon as the FCC does something to someone I expect they'll sue and get appealed up to the Supreme Court and the law will be struck down but that could take years to happen.

[Ego]

This makes me unbelievably mad. The FCC is a mangy dog in our government that needs to be taken out back and shot a la Old Yeller (I can say that about a lot of agencies, actually, such as the MPAA and RIAA). The fact that they've stood the test of time is not testament to how good a job they're doing, but rather to just how impossibly annoying they are.

I can see this leading to the "free market" destroying net neutrality and defecating on its grave.