Is the FCC Chairman getting ready to take a case-by-case approach to net neutrality?

[steve2470]

http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/is-the-fcc-chairman-getting-ready-to-take-a-case-by-case-approach-to-net-neutrality/

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday that he will announce the agency’s proposed plan for an open Internet “in the coming days” – but the plan may disappoint net neutrality advocates.

First, some background. When a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled last month that the FCC does not have the authority to require that Internet service providers treat all traffic equally, it also gave the agency a clear way to obtain that authority, saying the FCC could regulate these providers if it changes how it has chosen to categorize them.

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC can decide if ISPs are “telecommunications services,” which transmit information and treat all information equally, or “information services,” which process information. Telecommunications services, like wired phone networks, are regulated to be open, common carriers, whereas information processors are left unregulated to promote innovation.

*snip*

Many net neutrality advocates are hoping the FCC will simply correct its previous classification. But that’s not what Wheeler has been signaling in recent weeks.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. A case by case basis is not neutral and not net neutrality.

That does not compute.

[villager]

2. We would expect otherwise from an administration that excels at caving in?

[woo me with science]

4. "Caving" implies that a non-rigged, non-corporate outcome was desired.

This administration has been consistent and aggressive in its work on behalf of corporations and against the interests of ordinary Americans.

They, like the administration before them, have systematically been removing every single avenue the people have left to fight back against the corporate looting of our lives and our futures -- assaulting our right to privacy, our free press, our right to assemble and protest, our protections for journalists and whistleblowers...

With this next massive betrayal, we lose control of the internet...and the corporations gain the means to control our access to information and freedom of association. Look at the wasteland of cable TV. This is NOT just about costs. This is about control of information and communication. The free and open internet was perhaps our last hope for organizing and educating to take back our country from corporate fascism.

This is a horrifying but expected signal from a corporate Trojan horse administration. This is a devastating blow to all Americans.

[PoliticAverse]

3. When I read 'case by case' I think 'contributor by contributor'... n/t

[woo me with science]

5. Huge K&R