House votes to overturn 'net neutrality' rules

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives voted on Friday to overturn "net neutrality" rules aimed at ensuring an open Internet, setting the stage for a clash with the Senate and President Barack Obama.

The House voted 240-179 in favor of a Republican-backed resolution that seeks to block the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The House vote went almost entirely along party lines although six Democrats joined the Republicans in voting for the resolution and two Republicans opposed it.

The five-member, Democratic-controlled FCC, in a vote split on party lines, agreed in December to the rules aimed at safeguarding "network neutrality" -- the principle that lawful Web traffic should be treated equally.

Supporters have argued that the rules are needed to ensure an open Internet but opponents have decried them as unnecessary government intervention.

The Senate, where Democrats are in the majority, is unlikely to pass a measure similar to that approved by the House and the White House has threatened a veto if the resolution reaches President Obama's desk.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, welcomed the House's approval of the resolution calling it "an important step to bring down the FCC's harmful and partisan plan to regulate the Internet."

"These regulations give the government unwarranted authority to control broadband networks which ultimately will hinder a thriving industry, harm competition and stifle innovation," Cantor said.

"Under Republican leadership, the House is focusing on ending anti-growth government regulations," he said.

Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the Republican-backed resolution "takes us in the wrong direction -- revoking basic consumer protections, eliminating competition, and shutting off outlets of innovation."

Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, expressed disappointment with the House move saying "Americans want the Internet to remain free and open and the FCC's net neutrality rules provided just that."

The rules are a balancing act by the FCC between support for consumers and the cable and telephone companies that are the main Internet service providers in the United States.

The rules would prevent fixed broadband providers from blocking lawful content, applications or services, providing their own video content at a faster speed, for example, than that of a rival.

Wireless providers may not block access to lawful websites or applications that compete directly with their own voice or video telephony services but they could potentially block other applications or services.

Fixed broadband providers can also charge consumers according to usage, a metered pricing practice already used by some wireless carriers.

US telecom carrier Verizon Communications filed a legal challenge to the FCC's rules in January but a federal appeals court threw it out this week on the grounds that it was "premature" because the FCC has not yet published the rules in the Federal Register.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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House Republicans Tee Up Resolution to Overturn Net Neutrality Rules

Congress/AFP image

David Makarewicz, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The next front in the war for Internet freedom is about to begin in Congress with a new battle over net neutrality.

On Tuesday, the House voted 241-178 to take up a Republican-backed resolution to overturn the FCC's net neutrality rules. The vote was largely down party lines. The resolution states:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to the matter of preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices (Report and Order FCC 10-201, adopted by the Commission on December 21, 2010), and such rule shall have no force or effect.

Once the resolution officially passes the House, it will move on to the Senate, where the outcome is less certain because the Democrats, who typically favor net neutrality, maintain a narrow majority.  Since the resolution relates to a federal agency, Senate rules do not allow a filibuster, so only 51 votes will be needed to pass the Senate.  This week, President Obama threatened to veto the resolution if it passes.

"Report and Order FCC 10-201" refers to the net neutrality regulations enacted by the FCC last December.  Net neutrality rules limit Internet broadband providers' ability to block or slow down access to legal websites.  Without these regulations, a provider would have the right to force website publishers to pay for the privilege of users being able to access their sites at high speeds, while sites that could not pay (or whose message a provider did not like) might only be accessible at slow speeds.

Many Republicans, as well as Internet providers such as Comcast and Sprint, have framed the net neutrality regulations as an attempt by liberals and the Obama Administration to control the Internet.  Supporters of the regulations counter that net neutrality, by its nature, is designed to prevent control of the Internet by corporations, not to give the Government additional control.

On another front, on Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed lawsuits attempting to overturn the net neutrality rules, which had been filed by Verizon and Metro PCS .  However, the suits were only dismissed because of a timing technicality (the complaints were filed before the net neutrality order was formally published), so the carriers will almost certainly refile their lawsuits at the appropriate time.

David Makarewicz is an attorney practicing internet law concerning privacy rights and copyright defense for websites and blogs. Visit Dave at Sites and Blogs to keep up with breaking Internet news.

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Al Franken: ‘They're coming after the Internet’

Mike Zapler
Politico

AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality.

"I came here to warn you, the party may be over," Franken said. "They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.”

Net neutrality, he added, is "the First Amendment issue of our time."

Receiving a hero's welcome from the liberal crowd, Franken took repeated shots at big telecoms, singling out Comcast.

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6 Threats to Free and Open Access to the Internet

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