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Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down net Neutrality: What’s Next?

Author:     GRANT GROSS
Source:     PC World
Publication Date:     1/14/2014 13:00
 Link: Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down net Neutrality: What’s Next?
Stephan:   This is likely to change all our lives, and is an appallingly bad decision. The American courts are now so stacked in favor of corporate interests they are warping the culture in profound ways. Let us hope this decision is appealed and over-turned, or that Congress changes the laws to assure net neutrality, or the FCC gets enough public pressure to overcome the industry and serve the interests of the people . It requires a significant public outcry. And since the corporate media is hardly covering the story, since it so powerfully affects their corporate masters few even seem to know this has happened.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and its allies have several options, with most of them difficult, after a U.S. appeals court struck down most of the agency’s 2010 net-neutrality rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit broadband and mobile-service providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web traffic and applications.

With FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler already promising to ‘consider all available options,” it’s clear that the net-neutrality fight in Washington, D.C., is far from over. Wheeler and Michael Weinberg, acting co-president of the digital rights group Public Knowledge, both talked about possibly appealing Tuesday’s decision.

FCC chair Tom Wheeler

However, the chances on appeal are mixed at best. While the court, in Tuesday’s ruling, said the FCC has some authority to regulate broadband, this is the second time the appeals court has struck down a specific FCC attempt to enforce net-neutrality rules, The same court ruled in April 2010 that the agency didn’t have the authority to order Comcast to stop throttling peer-to-peer traffic in the name of network management.

Beyond an appeal, the FCC has several other options. With the agency taking its regulatory authority from the Telecommunications […]

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