U.S. appeals court kills net neutrality

http://news.yahoo.com/u-appeals-court-kills-net-neutrality-152413671.html

More: "The FCC relinquished its authority to regulate Internet traffic when it defined broadband as an information service as opposed to a phone-like common carrier service, the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC ruled this morning. Justices vacated the Open Internet Order, noting that the FCC ”has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations.” This is the second time the court has ruled on the matter. In 2010 it upheld Comcast’s view that the FCC lacked statutory authority to treat all Internet content providers equally. Regulators then adopted disclosure, anti-blocking, and anti-discrimination requirements saying that the 1996 Telecommunications Act gives it the authority to encourage the growth of broadband. Verizon challenged those rules. The Appeals Court doesn’t fault the FCC for its second attempt, noting that “even a federal agency is entitled to a little pride.” It also says that the FCC offered a “reasonable” interpretation of the Telecom Act. But since the rules treated broadband as a common carrier service, “then given the manner in which the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers, the regulations cannot stand.”

http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/appeals-court-overturns-fcc-net-neutrality-rules/

 

At least the net neutrality died a quick and painless death. It never stood a chance in the United States. And this should be in the privacy problems section IMO.

 

Some Background Legal Information about how we got here:

"
Net Neutrality Takes a Big Hit in Court

—By Kevin Drum
| Tue Jan. 14, 2014 8:37 AM GMT

The long, grinding fight over net neutrality—the principle that everyone should have equal access to the internet—hit another speed bump today. But first, some background. Net neutrality was the de facto status quo until several years ago, when the Bush-era FCC decided to classify internet provision as an information service (IS) rather than a telecom service (TS). This mattered because telecom services had always been regulated as common carriers, which effectively required internet providers to treat everyone equally. Under the IS regime, the old common carrier requirements were replaced by four net neutrality "principles" that were considerably less stringent.

The Obama FCC went on to impose tighter net neutrality rules, but left alone the classification of internet services as IS. Today, a federal judge decided that the FCC's rules exceeded its authority because it had failed to classify broadband Internet as a common-carrier service:

. . . .

If the Supreme Court upholds this decision (or refuses to hear an appeal), net neutrality is dead unless the FCC or Congress decide to reclassify broadband internet as a telecom service regulated as a common carrier. If they don't, it will up-end the internet as we know it, with carriers free to provide, say, Amazon or Google with preferred service in return for higher access fees. That could be a big problem for startups—or anyone the telecom providers consider a competitor—who would have to contend with slower service as they tried to build their businesses. The big telecom companies say that's not what they have in mind, and maybe they don't right now. But they will. It's only a matter of time."

Full story here:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/01/net-neutrality-takes-big-hit-court

For the lawerly types here's a copy of the Court's decision:

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/3AF8B4D938CDEEA685257C6000532062/$file/11-1355-1474943.pdf


.

 

Tell the FCC: Save the Open Internet!\


http://www.commoncause.org/site/app...epJPKONoFdLHJOMwH7LEJVPEJgKELVNGKfLEKMNyFpK1H

 

I find it curious that The Washington Post, whose main beat is happenings in DC, including the DC Court of Appeals and the Regulatory agencies is the ONLY major internet news source whose Website does not yet mention this event on its front page. Yet, this is such a huge story for The USA, the future of the internet, free expression and non-corporate sponsored and filtered news and information, and business start-ups. I think that they buried it somewhere in Their Tech Section.

The Washington Post is now owned by Amazon.com's CEO Bezos. Amazon is a company that stands to benefit from this court ruling.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

If it continues on this way and the providers do what most fear they will do, you can say goodbye to Netflix, Hulu and others. Content providers have really only tolerated these services because they were desperate to get piracy down. Anyone who thinks the services themselves are making a killing are fooling themselves, because they're really losing money by the time they pay the licensing deals..which is why Netflix has gone way way down in quality of course. Music artists have never been happy with streaming services, so all but ITunes and perhaps down the road even ITunes is at risk. For you torrent folks, including the innocent Linux downloaders, enjoy the upcoming atrocious speeds in a best case scenario.

Mattdocs is right though, it was coming sooner or later.

 

What time zone are you in?

The link you provide from the front page links to the technology section and I did say in my post "I think that they buried it somewhere in Their Tech Section." The front page link to it did not exist when I wrote my post.

 

How the FCC screwed up its chance to make ISP blocking illegal.

Related: Net neutrality is half-dead: Court strikes down FCC’s anti-blocking rules.

-- Tom

 

Shame on Verizon, I would dump them immediately if I lived in the US and used their services.

 

ISPs now have free rein to gouge Netflix thanks to net neutrality case.

-- Tom

 

K Thanks. I just made an appointment with my optometrist

 

Welcome To The Net Neutrality Nightmare Scenario.

-- Tom

 

Is There a Future for Net Neutrality after Verizon v. FCC?.

-- Tom

 

"Net Neutrality" Ruling Opens Door for 2-Tiered Internet Market.

-- Tom

 

Why you should care about Net neutrality (FAQ).

-- Tom

 

Read this if you want the internet to live.

-- Tom

 

Net Neutrality Quashed: New Pricing Schemes, Throttling, and Business Models to Follow.

-- Tom

 

FCC will find new way to prevent ISP abuse after net neutrality loss.

-- Tom

 

It such a simple problem to solve, but the sheep will never do it.
Everyone fires up bittorrent at the same time and starts downloading.
Does not matter what, can be a linux distro, just downloading.
And they don't stop until problems are resolved.

Beh-beh,
Mrk

 

‘A FEMA-level fail’: The law professor who coined ‘net neutrality’ lashes out at the FCC’s legal strategy.

Related: Tim Wu on FCC's net neutrality disaster.

-- Tom