OpenStack 01/09/2015 (p.m.)
FCC Chairman Moves Toward Real Net Neutrality Protections | Free Press
Title II is for "common carriers." See http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/1934new.pdf pg. 35. Under Section 202: "(a) It shall be unlawful for any common carrier to make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services for or in connection with like communication service, directly or indirectly, by any means or device, or to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, class of persons, or locality, or to subject any particular person, class of persons, or locality to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage. (b) Charges or services, whenever referred to in this Act, include charges for, or services in connection with, the use of common carrier lines of communication, whether derived from wire or radio facilities, in chain broadcasting or incidental to radio communication of any kind. (c) Any carrier who knowingly violates the provisions of this section shall forfeit to the United States the sum of $6,000 for each such offense and $300 for each and every day of the continuance of such offense.
- - By Paul Merrell
In an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated that he will move to protect Net Neutrality by reclassifying Internet access under Title II of the Communications Act.
The chairman plans to circulate a new rule in early February. The agency is expected to vote on it during its Feb. 26 open meeting.
Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:
“Chairman Wheeler appears to have heard the demands of the millions of Internet users who have called for real Net Neutrality protections. The FCC’s past decisions to put its oversight authority on ice resulted in Net Neutrality being under constant threat. Wheeler now realizes that it’s best to simply follow the law Congress wrote and ignore the bogus claims of the biggest phone and cable companies and their well-financed front groups.
“Of course the devil will be in the details, and we await publication of the agency's final decision. But it’s refreshing to see the chairman firmly reject the industry’s lies and scare tactics. As we’ve said all along, Title II is a very flexible, deregulatory framework that ensures investment and innovation while also preserving the important public interest principles of nondiscrimination, universal service, interconnection and competition.”
The Electronic Freedom Foundation just dropped an incredible bunch of articles on the world in the form of their "2014 Year In Review" series. These are major contributions that place an awful lot of information in context. I thought I had been keeping a close eye on the same subject matter, but I'm only part way through the articles and am learning time after time that I had missed really important news having to do with digital freedom. I can't recommend these articles enough. So far, they are all must-read.
- - By Paul Merrell
2014 in Review Series
Net Neutrality Takes a Wild Ride
Web Encryption Gets Stronger and More Widespread
Big Patent Reform Wins in Court, Defeat (For Now) in Congress
More Time in the Spotlight for NSLs
The State of Free Expression Online
What We Learned About NSA Spying in 2014—And What We're Fighting to Expose in 2015
Email Encryption Grew Tremendously, but Still Needs Work
The Fight in Congress to End the NSA's Mass Spying
Open Access Movement Broadens, Moves Forward
Three Vulnerabilities That Rocked the Online Security World
Mobile Privacy and Security Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
It Was a Pivotal Year in TPP Activism but the Biggest Fight Is Still to Come
The Government Spent a Lot of Time in Court Defending NSA Spying Last Year
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.
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