I’ve got a busy morning so I’ll outsource this one to the Verge and let Ars Technica describe the revolving door of regulatory capture at the FCC.
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You are here: Home / RIP Net Neutrality
Betty Cracker
Here’s another article from The Verge that includes analysis of the FCC’s denial statement.
Baud
We’ll see the FCC’s proposals when they are released, but here’s what I think is going to happen. The D.C. Circuit said that the FCC couldn’t impose a strict nondiscrimination provision on broadband providers because that would effectively treat them like common carriers, which the FCC had said they are not. In a prior decision, the FCC had required cell companies to enter into data roaming agreements on “commercially reasonable terms.” When that was challenged, the D.C. Circuit said that the FCC could impose that requirement because it did not treat cell phone companies as common carriers (which, for purposes of data roaming, they are not). My guess is that the FCC will propose something similar for broadband to satisfy the D.C. Circuit.
NotMax
Headline is, shall we say, just a tad overblown?
The EU vote earlier this month won’t drive FCC action, but will, by necessity, serve as impetus to color and temper it.
Walker
@NotMax
American ISPs could care less about Europe. A disparity like this night cause the tech industry to leave America, but ISPs do not care about that either.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The D.C. Circuit pretty much put the kabosh on that principle. I know, in theory, the FCC could reclassify broadband providers as common carriers, but there is simply no way they could get away with it politically.
Baud
And last I checked, net neutrality was a fairly partisan issue in Congress, not that Republicans should ever be held accountable for any position they take.
Socoolsofresh
Can’t wait for the regulars here to say that this is a nothingburger, and that only dudebros should be upset about this. Then admonish anyone who does care and say they don’t care about racism enough.
Baud
@Socoolsofresh:
Why would anyone do that? This is an important issue.
And dudebros don’t like net neutrality. They think it’s government regulating the Internet.
NotMax
@Walker
On the contrary, would posit they care quite a bit and recognize how the precedent could serve to weaken their stance.
seabe
@Baud: why? Every single person who is on the FCC was nominated by Obama. What is stopping them politically? Does Obama need to send more nominees to the FCC, and does he need to get reelected?
Baud
@seabe:
By law, the FCC is always has a 3-2 partisan split, so the two Republicans, while nominated by Obama, aren’t really “his” and there is no way they will go along with any regulation (even the weak stuff the FCC is about the propose in light of the court decision). But the big issue is Congress, mostly the Republicans, who will be supported with millions of dollars in direct contributions as well as a litany of traditional and new astroturf groups. Plus, any reclassification would eventually be taken to the Supreme Court by the industry, and they still have a 5-4 majority there.
ETA: And like with so many issues, if the FCC were to be aggressive, many of the people who are yelling at the FCC to be aggressive would move on to the next big issue, so it would end up being a one-sided fight.
Gin & Tonic
Only slightly OT, but the tech crowd will be in this thread, so: anyone have any experience with, or want to share positives/negatives about any of Spider Oak, Wuala or Sync?
Citizen_X
@Gin & Tonic:
Spider Oak is a bit too hoppy for my tastes. Wuala is great, but it really should be served room temperature.
What? Oh. Never mind!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Gin & Tonic:
If you will be using one of those services for backup I’d have to ask why? You can pick up a 3TB USB hard drive for around a hundred bucks these days. If you will be doing file sharing then just choose one.
XeckyGilchrist
On the plus side, bloggers may have to be more efficient with their use of bandwidth and not just put up an embedded video and a cryptic three-word comment and call that a post.
Eric U.
the circuit court killed net neutrality, I am not sure why we would continue to see headlines touting new deaths for it. It’s disturbing, as is the lack of decent performance internet in the U.S.
Gin & Tonic
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: a) belt and suspenders, b) access from multiple devices/locations. There are differences in the encryption models, from a quick reading, along with where the data are actually physically stored, and since I’m a paranoid nut case about that kind of stuff, I want to make sure I understand.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Gin & Tonic:
Ah, thank you. I.m still into the One PC (Home built) Shall Rule Them All. The only other device I use regularly is a Kindle Fire so it sounds as though you have some research in front of you.
Gene108
@Baud:
I would not worry about the SCOTUS. Congress will, in bi-partisan fashion rarely seen on any issue since Obama proposed closing GITMO, redefine what the FCC can list as common carriers and pretty much put the nail in the coffin of net neutrality faster than the FCC is doing now.
Hagiographer
Out of curiosity, in the hypothetical (but increasingly likely) case that these rules goes into effect, would it be feasible for for an ISP to voluntarily remain net neutral? There is clearly a large potential customer base that cares deeply about this issue and would be inclined to support such an ISP, but maybe it would have a really hard time being price competitive when the Comcasts and Verizons are all getting huge “fast lane” payments from the content providers. What do you smarter folks think?
srv
I thought regulatory capture is a glibertarian term.
El Tiburon
That anyone expected anything different is so quaint and cute.
Rex Everything
http://www.cnet.com/news/obama-pledges-net-neutrality-laws-if-elected-president/
He asked Obama: “Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to reinstate Net neutrality as the law of the land? And would you pledge to only appoint FCC commissioners that support open Internet principles like Net neutrality?”
“The answer is yes,” Obama replied. “I am a strong supporter of Net neutrality.”
(October 2007)
(emphasis added)
Higgs Boson's Mate
Just wait until the Tier 1 and Tier 2 networks decide to extract their pound of flesh.
Walker
@Hagiographer:
Only if you live in a densely populated urban area. Most of the US does not get a choice of high speed ISP. Heck, if I were to live a mile down the road, I would have nothing.
burnspbesq
@Socoolsofresh:
As a regular, let me just say that I do not give even a little bit of a shit what you think about anything, you ignoramus.
“Net Neutrality,” however defined, is, was, and always will be a fantasy. The FCC dropped the ball in a way that can only be remedied by Congress, and Congress will never act. So stop whining. Here’s a bottle of Sriracha to make your shit sandwich easier to swallow.
Villago Delenda Est
@Walker: This is because they’re run by MBA assholes who know only about short term profit, not long term prosperity.
Adam Smith weeps.
Villago Delenda Est
@Socoolsofresh: And here is one of the assholes who need to be shot into the Sun.
burnspbesq
Also too: fuck you, mix, for libeling thousands of hard-working, honorable public employees by conflating the revolving door and regulatory capture, which are neither logically or actually related to each other.
Unlike you and your fucked up ivory tower academic perspective, some of us have been there and done that and know you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about on this subject. Seriously. Give it up. Employee migration between the public and private sectors is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for “regulatory capture” (which itself is simply an elegant way of calling the waahmulamce when your side loses a policy decision), and vice versa.
For someone who is obviously not stupid, you certainly believe some stupid shit.
Rex Everything
http://www.cnet.com/news/obama-pledges-net-neutrality-laws-if-elected-president/
He asked Obama: “Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to reinstate Net neutrality as the law of the land? And would you pledge to only appoint FCC commissioners that support open Internet principles like Net neutrality?”
“The answer is yes,” Obama replied. “I am a strong supporter of Net neutrality.”
(October 2007)
(emphasis added)
“[T]he FCC itself is led by a man who formerly led both the cable and wireless lobby groups…Wheeler, who became chairman last year, was president and CEO of the CTIA from 1992 to 2004 and president and CEO of the NCTA from 1979 to 1984. Along the way, he also worked as a venture capitalist; started companies that offer cable, wireless, and video communications services…”
(April 2014)
(emphasis added)
“There’s more. Baker, the new CTIA CEO, was also an employee of the CTIA before her stint as an FCC commissioner. She was a director of congressional affairs at CTIA from 1998 to 2000, and she started working for the government in 2004 when she joined the Department of Commerce. She was appointed to the FCC in 2009, voted in favor of Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal in January 2011, and then left the government to become senior vice president of government affairs for Comcast-NBCUniversal in May 2011.”
(April 2014)
(emphasis added)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@burnspbesq:
The passing years have yet to slow you on the draw. :)
Socoolsofresh
Ah, instead it seems like people here don’t care about net neutrality. I guess since it isn’t in an article leaked by GG, or being leaked by an easily demonized whistleblower, people here gloss it over. Good to see Rex Everything take Obama to task with his appointment of FCC corporate toadies. Oh ya, maybe that’s why people here don’t care. They would rather sweep this one under the rug than look at the ugly truth. How come no one wants to talk about the positive stuff Obama does?
Socoolsofresh
@burnspbesq: Funny, other countries are passing bills that make net neutrality a right, but yet you say that this can only be a fantasy. Seems like you have already given up on this one. Maybe cause your man ain’t doing jack shit about it. I guess your approach then is to be a defeatist. Sounds similar to ‘privacy was always a fantasy’ Good approach.
Berial
How the FCC, the regulated community, and their lobbyist are related was the subject of an Ars Technica article recently.
evolved beyond the fist mistermix
@burnspbesq:
As personally as you took this, one would think that you’re a political appointee like the subjects of that article I linked. Somehow I doubt that.
A revolving door from industry to federal appointment is obviously related to regulatory capture, no matter your spittle-flecked protestations to the contrary.
Rex Everything
@Socoolsofresh: If I may make a point in a somewhat roundabout way:
I traveled to the South last week & had a great time generally, but one of the lowlights of my trip was seeing an SUV plastered with anti-Obama bumper & window stickers. These stickers were of a particularly nasty variety: in addition to being both indirectly and openly racist, they were notable in recommending violence toward Obama. Mostly it was like “throw him out on his black ass” and so forth, the sort of thing that can be shrugged off as hyperbolic, but cumulatively it was alarming. If this truck were anywhere in the vicinity of Obama himself, I’m pretty sure the secret service would respond.
So as I’m looking at this truck (parked & empty in a crowded lot), it occurs to me that I’ve lived in Yankee country all my life, not just in Yankee country but in the most liberal cities in the US, and I’ve never seen anything from the Left remotely resembling this. Never seen a printed-&-mass-marketed invocation of violence against a GOPer, let alone a dozen or so of them like on this truck. And I really don’t see this sort of thing online either.
Then I saw the comment that Socoolsofresh “is one of the assholes who need to be shot into the Sun,” and I remembered. Liberals save this shit for EACH OTHER.
It just makes me so proud!