"FCC 'Standing In The Gap' For Net Neutrality"

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A majority of members of the Federal Communications Commission have cast votes in favor of punishing Comcast Corp. for blocking subscribers' Internet traffic, an agency official said Friday.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, was accused of violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.

Three commissioners have voted in favor of an order reaching agreement with the finding, enough for a majority on the five-member commission. But the decision will not be final until all five members have cast their votes. The commission is scheduled to take up the issue at its Aug. 1 meeting.

The three votes in favor were Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and Republican chairman Kevin Martin, who recommended the company be found in violation, according to the official, who asked not to be named because the vote was not yet final.

The potentially precedent-setting move stems from a complaint against Comcast that the company had blocked Internet traffic among users of a certain type of "file sharing" software that allows them to exchange large amounts of data.

The text of the order is not public. But Martin has said it will not include a fine. He also said it will require Comcast to stop its practice of blocking; provide details to the commission on the extent and manner in which the practice has been used; and to disclose to consumers details on future plans for managing its network going forward.

"I continue to believe that is imperative that all consumers have unfettered access to the Internet," Martin said in a statement released early Saturday morning. "I am pleased that a majority has agreed that the Commission both has the authority to and in fact will stop broadband service providers when they block or interfere with subscribers' access."

The FCC approved a policy statement in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles meant to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers."

The principles, however, are "subject to reasonable network management."

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice in a statement released Friday night said the company's network management practices are "reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and that we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services."

The action is the first test of the agency's network neutrality principles. Members of both the House and Senate have sponsored network neutrality bills, but they have never come close to becoming law.

Large Internet service providers have fought against such regulation, arguing that it is a solution in search of a problem and that companies that spend billions on their networks must be free to manage traffic.

Network neutrality (equivalently net neutrality, Internet neutrality or simply NN) is a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.

Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu: "Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally."

Google's "Guide to Net Neutrality": "Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days... Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online."

Cardozo Law School professor Susan Crawford states that a neutral Internet must forward packets on a first-come, first served basis, without regard for quality of service considerations.

The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006 would have made it a violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act for broadband providers to discriminate against any web traffic, refuse to connect to other providers, or block or impair specific (legal) content. It would also have prohibited the use of admission control to determine network traffic priority. The legislation was approved 20-13 by the House Judiciary committee on May 25, 2006, but was never taken up on the House floor and therefore failed to become law. A bill called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006 was introduced in the US House of Representatives, referencing the principles enunciated by the FCC and authorizing fines up to $750,000 for infractions. It was passed 321-101 by the full House of Representatives on June 8, 2006 but failed to become law when its companion measure was filibustered in the Senate.

"Information is the currency of democracy."
Thomas Jefferson

    Though the Congress has thus far evaded passing legislation to keep the Internet free (undoubtedly because of the influence of ISP lobbies), the FCC is "standing in the gap" for Net Neutrality by ruling against Comcast attempts to regulate the content and applications of users of their broadband Internet service. In my opinion, Net Neutrality or a free Internet, is necessary for the free flow of ideas, information and inspiration. Thomas Jefferson said "information is the currency of democracy", an idea I am sure millions of Internet users in the Free World can wholeheartedly agree with. Without Net Neutrality protection, the ISP's would only give free access to the mainstream media (MSM) and charge for alternative news sources and blogs. Without Net Neutrality, you would probably not be reading this post on this humble PageRank five blog. I thank God for the free Internet. Hopefully in the near future Congress will pass into law measures to legally protect the free Internet, because democracy demands it.

tags: net neutrality  the internet  fcc  comcast  takebackamerica  politics  us  technology  business  

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