Net Neutrality

[boutons_deux]

Appeals Court Hands Obama Administration Major Win In Net Neutrality Case


http://new.www.huffingtonpost.com/en...2fc46?section=

[boutons_deux]

The Cable Industry Trots Out Mitch McConnell To Fight Against Cable Box Compe ion

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who this week was nudged by the cable sector to jump into the fray with comments like this one:

"Rather than applying a light regulatory touch," Senator McConnell wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, "the FCC would require existing programming distributors to provide the copyrighted programming they have licensed from content providers to third party manufacturers and app developers, none of whom would be bound by the agreements to protect the content."

This is a line that the cable sector and its marionettes have been repeating, but it's simply not true.

As the FCC's proposal outline notes (pdf), all the plan does is require that cable operators deliver the same expensive programming they do now -- using the same copy protection and business arrangements -- without requiring a CableCARD.

A set top vendor can't just claim cable broadcasts as their own and ignore existing programming agreements, but that's one of several misleading arguments being put forth by the sector to kill the initiative.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...%28Techdirt%29

[boutons_deux]

Major telecoms promise 5G networks if EU cripples net neutrality

A group of 20 major telcos including Deutsche Telekom, Nokia, Vodafone, and BT promise to launch 5G networks in every country in the European Union by 2020 — so long as governments decide to weaken net neutrality rules.

The coalition's plans are outlined in its "5G Manifesto," a seven-page do ent that details how the companies will roll 5G out across the continent over the next few years.

However, by warning against regulation that would ensure an open internet and encouraging nations to water rules down, the companies are effectively holding the new technology for ransom.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/10/12...net-neutrality

ing amazing, the telecom mafia

[boutons_deux]

BigCorp still trying to up Internet for profit

Big Telecom Wants a DC Circuit Net Neutrality Review. Here’s Why That’s Unlikely

The nation’s largest cable and telecom industry trade groups on Friday asked a federal court for a rare “en banc” review of last month’s decision upholding US rules protecting net neutrality, the principle that all content on the internet should be equally accessible to consumers.

The industry pe ions come six weeks after a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a landmark ruling affirming Federal Communications Commission rules barring cable and phone companies from favoring certain internet services over others.

Friday’s pe ions, which request a hearing by the full DC Circuit Court of Appeals, were filed by USTelecom, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, theAmerican Cable Association, and wireless trade group CTIA, which collectively represent the nation’s largest cable and phone companies.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/net...en-banc-review

[boutons_deux]

Repugs are definitely going to up Internet

Trump, GOP Prepare To Gut FCC Boss Tom Wheeler's Populist Reforms...Under The False Banner Of Populist Reform

the chairs of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee this week officially asked Wheeler to avoid trying to implement any "controversial" or "partisan" efforts in his final months in office:

"I strongly urge the FCC to avoid directing its attention and resources in the coming months to complex, partisan, or otherwise controversial items that the new Congress and new Administration will have an interest in reviewing,” Senator John Thune wrote Tuesday in a letter to Wheeler...Any action taken by the FCC following November 8, 2016, will receive particular scrutiny,” the GOP lawmaker proclaimed."

At this point we should probably remind you that the GOP has hounded Wheeler for several years now with an endless series of pointless "accountability" hearings with one core function: shame Wheeler for standing up to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Absolutely everything Wheeler has done has been deemed "controversial" by the GOP, which was particularly incensed over net neutralityand the reclassification of ISPs as common carriers (necessary to legally defend the rules). In each hearing, Wheeler was cool under pressure despite being repeatedly shamed for simply doing his job.

Net neutrality, for example, is framed as "divisive" and "partisan" by the GOP, yet has broad support from members of both political parties. Similarly, municipal broadband (communities building their own networks or striking public/private partnerships to address private market failure) is often tagged as "partisan" by the GOP, despite the fact that the idea has broad bipartisan support, and most community broadband networks are built in Conservative areas.

Trump's telecom transition team is being led by Jeffrey Eisenach, a think tanker with direct ties to telecom (yet not technically a "lobbyist") who has vehemently opposed nearly every pro-consumer policy the agency has ever implemented. Also on Trump's advisory team is Rep. Marsha Blackburn, whose faithful support of AT&T and protectionist state laws has played a starring role in ensuring that her state of Tennessee remains a broadband backwater.

Trump has said he opposes net neutrality (even if it's not clear he actually understands what it is), suggesting those rules will either be scrapped -- or simply not enforced. Eisenach has similarly made it abundantly clear he sees the FCC's future as one in which its influence over broadband is negligible to non-existent, and net neutrality is no longer the law of the land. In an editorial written over at The Hill in 2010, Eisenach blasted net neutrality as a "radical scheme" crafted (ironically) by bogus populists:

"Boiled down to the basics, in other words, net neutrality is a massive scheme for what Richard Posner termed “taxation by regulation” – the transfer of wealth from one group to another by means of government regulation....The populist rhetoric of (net neutrality supporting groups) often strikes a radical pose, but the real radicalism of net neutrality lies in the naked use of Federal regulatory power to redistribute wealth.

intentionally ignored the fact that net neutrality is something the public wanted by an overwhelming, bipartisan degree.

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/netneu...t-reform.shtml

[boutons_deux]

AT&T and Time Warner Execs Vow to Protect Press Freedom Under Trump

Top executives from AT&T and Time Warner pledged under oath to protect US First Amendment free press protections,

During a hearing about AT&T’s proposed $85 billion buyout of Time Warner, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, grilled the top executives from both companies about their commitment to free speech.

The issue of free speech has become especially important for news organizations, given president-elect Trump’s open hostility to the press, especially CNN, which the reality TV star and real estate branding mogul repeatedly denounced during the election campaign.

“For a public official to use the blunt, heavy instrument of law enforcement to try to silence or change coverage by a news department of any company is for me absolutely abhorrent,”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/att...om-under-trump

BigCorp's lips are moving, it's LYING!

I'm sure Trash's DoJ will enforce Freedom of the Press

[boutons_deux]

Say bye-bye to net neutrality next year, gloats FCC commish Pai

Promises to take 'weed wacker' to internet rules





FCC commissioner Ajit Pai explained how 2017 will be the year that net neutrality dies in the US, and that municipal networks can forget about existing as well.

On Wednesday, Pai gave a speech at the Free State Foundation in which he lambasted the FCC for taking on more responsibility than it was allowed by Congress in labelling internet provision as a le II carrier service. This will change when President-elect
Donald Trump takes office, he promised.

"Last month's election will prove to be an inflection point ... during the Trump Administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense," Pai said.

"On the day that the le II Order was adopted, I said that 'I don't know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future Commission. But I do believe that its days are numbered.' Today, I am more confident than ever that this prediction will come true."

Pai complained that there "was no evidence of systemic failure in the Internet marketplace," despite the fact that

US broadband speeds are falling behind other countries,

over half of Americans have no choice between high-speed internet providers, and

telcos are ramping up the use of data caps to boost profits.

Pai also praised court rulings that towns and cities can't be allowed to set up their own municipal networks if states have enacted legislation making the practice illegal.

Towns in North Carolina and Tennessee have

tried to set up networks, but have been blocked by telco-sponsored state legislation designed to stop compe ion with commercial suppliers.

"We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation," Pai enthused.

With the incoming administration the composition of the five-person FCC will change, with the Republicans replacing the current 3-2 Democratic majority. Pai promised great changes to come, but it's unclear if the proposed revisions will benefit consumers or the companies that sell to them.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12...rash_net_neut/

... just one of the 100s of ways Trash and establishment Repugs will and fleece Americans

[boutons_deux]

Remaining FCC Commissioners Promise To Gut Net Neutrality 'As Soon As Possible'

from the nice-knowin'-ya dept

We've already noted how large ISPs are licking their chops on reports that the

incoming Trump-led FCC plans to not only gut net neutrality, but

to defang and defund the FCC also.

Most of Trump's telecom advisors have direct ties to telecom;

one, former Sprint lobbyist Mark Jamison, doesn't think telecom monopolies are real.

Verizon lawyer turned current FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is rumored to be the most likely candidate for future FCC boss, and

just last week proclaimed that net neutrality's days are numbered under Trump.

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/netneu...possible.shtml

ing America starting soon, and will run for 4 years.

[RandomGuy]

Say bye-bye to net neutrality next year, gloats FCC commish Pai

Promises to take 'weed wacker' to internet rules





FCC commissioner Ajit Pai explained how 2017 will be the year that net neutrality dies in the US, and that municipal networks can forget about existing as well.

On Wednesday, Pai gave a speech at the Free State Foundation in which he lambasted the FCC for taking on more responsibility than it was allowed by Congress in labelling internet provision as a le II carrier service. This will change when President-elect
Donald Trump takes office, he promised.

"Last month's election will prove to be an inflection point ... during the Trump Administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense," Pai said.

"On the day that the le II Order was adopted, I said that 'I don't know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future Commission. But I do believe that its days are numbered.' Today, I am more confident than ever that this prediction will come true."

Pai complained that there "was no evidence of systemic failure in the Internet marketplace," despite the fact that

US broadband speeds are falling behind other countries,

over half of Americans have no choice between high-speed internet providers, and

telcos are ramping up the use of data caps to boost profits.

Pai also praised court rulings that towns and cities can't be allowed to set up their own municipal networks if states have enacted legislation making the practice illegal.

Towns in North Carolina and Tennessee have

tried to set up networks, but have been blocked by telco-sponsored state legislation designed to stop compe ion with commercial suppliers.

"We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation," Pai enthused.

With the incoming administration the composition of the five-person FCC will change, with the Republicans replacing the current 3-2 Democratic majority. Pai promised great changes to come, but it's unclear if the proposed revisions will benefit consumers or the companies that sell to them.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12...rash_net_neut/

... just one of the 100s of ways Trash and establishment Repugs will and fleece Americans

http://www.trutv.com/shows/adam-ruin...-internet.html

Yet another way in which corporations are trying to us. That isn't "free market" that is vulture capitalism, with us as the meal.

[Spurminator]

This is the year Donald Trump kills Net Neutrality
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/year-d...et-neutrality/

2015 WAS THE year the Federal Communications Commission grew a spine. And 2017 could be the year that spine gets ripped out.

Over the past two years, the FCC has passed new regulations to protect net neutrality by banning so-called “slow lanes” on the internet, created new rules to protect internet subscriber privacy, and levied record fines against companies like AT&T and Comcast. But this more aggressive FCC has never sat well with Republican lawmakers.

Soon, these lawmakers may not only repeal the FCC’s recent decisions, but effectively neuter the agency as well. And even if the FCC does survive with its authority intact, experts warn, it could end up serving a darker purpose under President-elect Donald Trump.

MAKE THE INTERNET SUCK AGAIN

[baseline bum]

This is the year Donald Trump kills Net Neutrality
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/year-d...et-neutrality/



MAKE THE INTERNET SUCK AGAIN

Thanks Obama

[boutons_deux]

How Donald Trump Could Make Rupert Murdoch Even More Powerful

President-elect Donald Trump may be preparing to give Rupert Murdoch a big reward for the positive coverage Murdoch’s outlets provided during the election.

Trump has asked Murdoch to submit the names of possible nominees for Federal Communications Commission chairman,

according to a report from New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman.

Trump’s FCC will be positioned to roll back regulations that have kept

Murdoch from buying up newspapers and television stations across the country.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-co...more-powerful/

The oligarchy, the corporatocracy hardens it domination of the country.

Corporate media for profit and power is a veritable Ministry of Truth.

[Th'Pusher]

How Donald Trump Could Make Rupert Murdoch Even More Powerful

President-elect Donald Trump may be preparing to give Rupert Murdoch a big reward for the positive coverage Murdoch’s outlets provided during the election.

Trump has asked Murdoch to submit the names of possible nominees for Federal Communications Commission chairman,

according to a report from New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman.

Trump’s FCC will be positioned to roll back regulations that have kept

Murdoch from buying up newspapers and television stations across the country.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-co...more-powerful/

The oligarchy, the corporatocracy hardens it domination of the country.

Corporate media for profit and power is a veritable Ministry of Truth.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

[Winehole23]

In a joint filing by all of the major advertising lobbying and trade associations, the advertising industry this week was quick to submit a pe ion to the FCC (pdf) claiming that the new rules aren't necessary because the marketing sector already adheres to a "self-regulatory" regime that delivers all the transparency, choice and benefits that consumers could possibly handle:

"This ecosystem has functioned well for years under an enforceable self-regulatory framework developed by the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”), which is broadly supported by industry and widely recognized as a highly credible and effective privacy self-regulatory program that offers consumers transparency about online data collection and a way to control the use of their online data by DAA members while allowing data-driven innovation to flourish. The DAA has been widely successful, with hundreds of companies and thousands of brands participating in the program, over 75 million unique visitors to its digital properties, reaching 35 countries and translated into 26 languages."

And while it's certainly nice that the advertising agency has translated its entirely voluntary privacy practices into so many languages, that's not really relevant to what the FCC was trying to accomplish with the rules. The FCC imposed rules specifically thanks to the lack of compe ion in the broadband last mile, a lack of compe ion that lets ISPs and advertisers impose draconian new consumer surveillance policies the consumer can't vote to avoid with their wallet. The FCC was particularly nudged to action by the discovery that Verizon and its ad partners were covertly modifying user packets to track users around the internet.


It took two years for security researchers to even discover what Verizon and its marketing partners were up to. It took another six months of heavy public shaming before Verizon was even willing to provide working opt-out tools. At no point did industry, or any of its self-regulatory apparatuses, stop and think they'd taken things a bit too far, which is why the FCC, agree or not, felt it was necessary to lend consumers a hand. The FCC was also concerned about a growing push by some ISPs to make opting out of data collection a pricey, luxury option for consumers, "self-regulatory safeguards" be damned.

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?start=10

[Winehole23]

At the thrust of the ad and marketing industry's formal opposition to the FCC's rules is an old favorite; the claim that protecting consumer privacy is somehow a violation of the marketing industry's free speech rights:

"The Commission did this in a manner that unreasonably exceeds its statutory mandate by restricting a substantial amount of protected free speech counter to the First Amendment, and using a process that did not allow adequate notice and comment from interested parties."

[boutons_deux]

"the claim that protecting consumer privacy is somehow a violation of the marketing industry's free speech rights"

aka, a "weaponized" First Amendment, also weaponized by Christian Sharia to impose their Biblical crap, hate, Sharia on everybody else.

[Wild Cobra]

"the claim that protecting consumer privacy is somehow a violation of the marketing industry's free speech rights"

aka, a "weaponized" First Amendment, also weaponized by Christian Sharia to impose their Biblical crap, hate, Sharia on everybody else.

Why not?

The liberals stretch the 1st in so many ways, they educated others how to do the same!

[boutons_deux]

The liberals stretch the 1st in so many ways

goddam, you're stupid (and no evidence, either)

[boutons_deux]

Congresswoman who tried to end net neutrality now chair of committee on telecommunications

Tennessee’s crazy insane lady Rep. Marsha Blackburn just got a new responsibility. She’s going to be the chairperson of the congressional telecommunications subcommittee.

Blackburn has consistently tried to unravel FCC attempts to regulate broadband providers.

In 2015, she filed legislation led the "Internet Freedom Act" to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's then-new network neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

The net neutrality rules still remain in effect, but Republicans are expected to attack the rules again under President-elect Donald Trump.

Blackburn has claimed that the FCC's net neutrality order is an attempt to "set all the rates" that broadband providers charge for Internet service, even though the FCC hasn't tried to do that and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he had no intention of doing so.

Blackburn has also worked to preserve laws in about 20 states that make it difficult for cities and towns to offer their own broadband Internet services.

She filed legislation to prevent the FCC from preempting such state laws, saying, "I strongly believe in states' rights."

After the FCC went ahead with the proposal anyway, saying it was necessary to improve broadband connectivity in areas with little compe ion, Blackburn filed another bill to overturn the FCC decision.

She wasn't able to get legislation passed, but that FCC decision ended up being overturned in court.

Like Yosemite Sam before her, Rep. Blackburn has been firing wildly in the hopes that she would be given one of the Republicans’ many big jobs trying to dismantle any and all consumer and health safety nets our government has left.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/0...28Daily+Kos%29

Consequences to goin to be ALL NEGATIVE

"May the NEGATIVES be with Trash fellators"

[ElNono]

FCC Rescinds Claim That AT&T, Verizon Violated Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission's new Republican leadership has rescinded a determination that ATT and Verizon Wireless violated net neutrality rules with paid data cap exemptions. The FCC also rescinded several other Wheeler-era reports and actions. The FCC released its report on the data cap exemptions (aka "zero-rating") in the final days of Democrat Tom Wheeler's chairmanship. Because new Chairman Ajit Pai opposed the investigation, the FCC has now formally closed the proceeding. The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sent letters to ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile USA notifying the carriers "that the Bureau has closed this inquiry. Any conclusions, preliminary or otherwise, expressed during the course of the inquiry will have no legal or other meaning or effect going forward." The FCC's Wireline Compe ion Bureau also sent a letter to Comcast closing an inquiry into the company's Stream TV cable service, which does not count against data caps. The FCC issued an order that "sets aside and rescinds" the Wheeler-era report on zero-rating. All "guidance, determinations, and conclusions" from that report are rescinded, and it will have no legal bearing on FCC proceedings going forward, the order said. ATT and Verizon allow their own video services (DirecTV and Go90, respectively) to stream on their mobile networks without counting against customers' data caps, while charging other video providers for the same data cap exemptions. The FCC under Wheeler determined that ATT and Verizon unreasonably interfered with online video providers' ability to compete against the carriers' video services.

[ElNono]

So you're Sling TV or Playstation Vue, but you have to compete with AT&T's DirectTV streaming, which doesn't count against your mobile data cap. This is the vaunted "free market"? smh

I tell you, I thought Wheeler was going to be terrible due to his background, but he turned out to be one of the most consumer-conscious Chairman of the FCC.

[baseline bum]

So you're Sling TV or Playstation Vue, but you have to compete with AT&T's DirectTV streaming, which doesn't count against your mobile data cap. This is the vaunted "free market"? smh

I tell you, I thought Wheeler was going to be terrible due to his background, but he turned out to be one of the most consumer-conscious Chairman of the FCC.

Make the cable monopolies power great again

[boutons_deux]

FCC blocks 9 companies from providing low-income internet access

A handful of service providers are no longer able to participate in a federal program that provides low-income people with cheap internet access, the FCC said on Friday.

Regulators told nine companies they can't take part in the Lifeline broadband program just weeks after they were approved.

The federal Lifeline program, established in 1985, provides discounted phone and internet service for people in poorer communities to connect with family and access resources for jobs and education. The FCC expanded the program to include broadband last year, and now gives participating households a $9.25 per month credit they can use for internet access.

The status of the nine companies will be changed to "pending," and the FCC will reconsider their participation in the program. Regulators had approved four of those companies on December 1 and five on January 18.

Reconsidering the pe ions will "promote program integrity" and

give the FCC "additional time to consider measures that might be necessary to prevent further waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program,"

ing LAWYERS will say anything, tell any LIE

the FCC wrote.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/03/tech...rnet-lifeline/

I've been telling You People, the Repugs UP EVERYTHING they touch.

[boutons_deux]

Senator Thune Begins Pushing A 'Net Neutrality' Bill That's Likely To Kill Net Neutrality

So if you're an ISP lobbyist looking to kill net neutrality rules, how do you accomplish this without causing a massive public storm? Why you table a bill that pretends to save and protect net neutrality, while wording it to do the exact opposite, of course!

It's widely believed that the GOP intends to table a net neutrality bill sometime this year, either as a standalone bill or part of a Communications Act rewrite (with a heavy emphasis on killing the FCC's consumer-protection authority)

begins his sales pitch with, unfortunately, a lie:

"I am quite confident that the online experience for the overwhelming majority of users has not really changed for better or worse because of the new regulations. The Internet’s future, however, is uncertain because of ideological bureaucrats at the FCC who adopted a misguided regulatory approach that has chilled investment and offers no protections against excessive bureaucratic interference in the years ahead.

...These regulations are already having a negative impact on Internet infrastructure.

While not a problem in places like Silicon Valley or New York City, 34 million Americans today lack access to broadband services at home, and there is evidence that the FCC’s onerous regulations have chilled the capital investments that are needed to deploy broadband throughout the country."

As we just got done saying, the claim

that net neutrality "chilled investment" simply isn't true,

new net neutrality law built by Congress:

"While the FCC’s 2015 rules may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history, the last few months have shown us all that political winds can and often do shift suddenly. The only way to truly provide certainty for open Internet protections is for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation. Rather than heavy-handed and open-ended regulations that stifle the Internet, we need a statute offering clear and enduring rules that balance innovation and investment for all parts of the Internet ecosystem."

The plan is to introduce a new net neutrality law that kills net neutrality while professing to save it. When lawmakers point out that the bill does more harm than good, they'll likely be derided for refusing to
"compromise."

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...utrality.shtml

[baseline bum]

I'll never understand why Republican voters are so eager to pay more for Netflix.