Flimsy Last Ditch Effort To Derail Real Net Neutrality Protections Launches In Congress
from the let's-play-make-believe dept
With Title II based net neutrality rules pretty much a sure thing, the mega-ISPs have been engaged in a last-ditch attempt to derail the FCC ahead of an expected February 26 announcement and vote. This has included significant pressure on lawmakers to rewrite the Communications Act with a core focus on hamstringing the FCC by eroding both their authority -- and their budget. ISPs are also pushing well compensated Congressfolk to pass new, weaker neutrality rules in an effort to preempt tougher Title II provisions.At the vanguard of this latter effort sit Senator John Thune and Representative Fred Upton. The two have been busily firing up an utterly adorable stage play the last week in which they profess to love net neutrality so much, they're starting a "public conversation" about new, bi-partisan neutrality rules they hope to pass. As part of this campaign, the two took to the Reuters op/ed page last week to convince the public that while they once saw neutrality rules as a "solution in search of a problem," they now think we need tough, comprehensive, bipartisan rules crafted after a painstaking public conversation:
"In the coming days, we plan to pursue a public process to draft and enact bipartisan legislation that would protect the open Internet. We hope FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the public will join Congress in working to build and enact a shared set of principles that will protect Internet users, promote innovation, encourage investment — and withstand legal challenge.Clearly this is an amazing, unprecedented example of Congress working through its traditional partisan dysfunction and coming together to ensure the Internet is protected from the lack of last mile competition, nurturing a more robust Internet economy for generations to come. Just kidding. It's all bullshit.
We have made this an early priority of this Congress, demonstrating we can come together on a bipartisan basis to protect the vitality of the Internet — now so indispensable to our economy and way of life. Enduring, long-term protections for our digital freedoms are something we should all support."
What's actually happening here is Thune and Upton are trying to force through a law written by ISP lawyers that is actually weaker than the original FCC rules AT&T and Comcast supported (but Verizon sued to overturn). By "public conversation," they mean a series of public hearings in which the usual assortment of think tankers, fauxcademics, sock puppets and other ISP-payrolled policy folk gush over the proposal as a more "sensible" solution than Title II. Except when you actually bother to read their proposal (pdf), you'll note that the rules are so stuffed with loopholes, they fail to protect net neutrality whatsoever.
The bill's language leaves the FCC with less flexibility and authority to enforce net neutrality than ever before. It exempts anything having to do with copyright infringement, allows prioritization of a company's own content (provided payments aren't made), doesn't address discrimination via access charges, and has a painfully ambiguous definition of "reasonable network management." It also fails to cover the areas where the most important anti-competitive gatekeeper shenanigans are occurring right now: usage caps, payment schemes to bypass those caps (like AT&T's Sponsored Data), and interconnection.
Consumer groups like Public Knowledge note the proposal only prohibits the kind of ham-fisted offenses ISPs were never even considering (blocking websites or services outright). Otherwise it's a giant wishlist for all of the "creative" gatekeeper pricing efforts carriers have been cooking up for several years, while leaving the FCC largely powerless to protect consumers from them:
"For example, these principles would not have prevented AT&T from limiting FaceTime to particular tiers of service – as it tried to do in 2012. It would not address discriminatory use of data caps, such as Comcast has used to favor its own streaming content over that of rivals. It would not address potential issues arising at Internet interconnection, the gateway to the last mile. Even worse, by eliminating any flexibility on rulemaking or enforcement, the bill would prevent the FCC from addressing any new forms of discrimination and threats to openness that arise."Still, some folks in the press were impressed that neutrality opponents were striking a "conciliatory note," seemingly portraying Thune and Upton as courageous for reaching across the aisle. That's giving this effort way too much credit, as they're just pantomiming according to a provided script. Worse, the two discard the last four years of progress in net neutrality discussions by actually making their proposal weaker than the rules crafted with Google, Verizon and AT&T's heavy participation in 2010. Thune and Upton's efforts are little more than a mule in a dress trying to do a Marilyn Monroe impression, and it's huge step backward for those interested in meaningful neutrality protections.
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Filed Under: broadband, congress, fcc, fred upton, isps, john thune, loopholes, net neutrality, title ii, title x
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I truly hope that I am wrong, and that real change will happen, but just trying to be realistic
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Bought and paid
I can't say for Thune, I'll have to investigate more after work.
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Health care, banking, ethanol, energy, insurance. There are ISPs in his top 100, but they are pretty far down the list.
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Still ironic
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Pressure flows where there's least resistance.
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That would actually make the problem worse, not better. It would increase the amount of power in the hands of the unelected bureaucrats that don't have terms at all. Then the corruption would be even more difficult to reign in.
I fundamentally agree with where the AC is coming from, but my take on it is from the other end: the reason that congresspeople are in such desperate need for so much money is because they need to buy airtime during their campaigns. So, the easiest solution would be to restrict the purchasing of airtime.
Very nearly every politician in government would love to have the need for fundraising be reduced. As it is right now, they universally complain about the fact that they must spend most of their time during their terms engaging in fundraising.
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Yet no campaign finance reform.
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The promise of a lucrative executive job with your biggest lobbyist where you're paid good money to influence other politicians after you finally get removed from office is another perk that is just too good to give up.
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Campaign finance [was Re: Re: Re: ]
Rather than attempting to restrict the amount of political speech in the public arena, it's probably better to publicly subsidize candidates' airtime.
The broadcasters' licenses do not give them ownership of the public airwaves. The broadcasters have a duty to the public.
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I don't see how that follows. There would be no overall reduction in the amount of power that Congress wields, just a shorter duration for any particular person to wield it. Less time worrying about re-election campaigns. Less time redrawing district maps. In general, less time to get up to the shenanigans that has essentially broken our method of government.
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This is actually an incredibly well-known phenomenon that history provides endless examples of. The most famous, perhaps, being China. China has been considered unconquerable for thousands of years -- not because they can't be militarily conquered, but because the only people who could get things done there are the functionaries that have been around forever. When they'd get militarily conquered, the conquerors would have to rely on the existing functionaries in order to keep the nation running. In the end, nothing would really change much and the people actually ruling were the same ones that had ruled pre-invasion: the functionaries.
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I guess you could be right, but frankly that is only an admission that our current republic is irreparably broken.
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Where did he suggest that?
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IF you agree with that 'principle' (ie immorality), you have simply made the death of small-dee democracy INEVITABLE...
so FORGET THAT SHIT, that 'principle' which is not a principle, is simply ENFORCED upon us by rich people and their eee-vil minions of doom; it is no sort of moral 'principle' i have been raised to recognize...
2. now, PUBLIC campaign financing is the next step, WITH useless gatekeeper media greedhogs supplying FREE AIR TIME for campaign ads...
(FUCKERS, we don't get SHIT back for GIVING OUR airwaves to those greedhogs, AT THE VERY LEAST, they can provide free air time during campaign periods every couple years...)
make that minimum of free media be sufficient, then the candidates for the greedhogs spending above that will have little advantage EVEN IF they outspend 100:1...
(not perfect, but a start)
3. shorten the campaigning seasons (not sure exactly what mechanism, etc, but other countries seem to manage it okay), so it is NOT an interminable multi-year snorefest that turns EVERYONE off...
4. DUMP the Korporate Money Party duopoly of dem'rats/rethugs controlling nearly any and all aspects of our campaign laws, financing, and 'qualifying' candidates, etc... LEVEL the playing field so third/fourth/etc parties can get traction, NOT be relegated to essentially NO STATUS in the races...
gee, aren't these fucktards endlessly extolling the magical benefits of 'competition' ? ? ? (except for THEM, of course)
okay, *that* would be a good start; BUT it will NOT happen, because the corrupted, amoral pigs who run/control The System (tm) will NOT allow said system to be modified beyond their control... AGAIN, The System (tm) is NOT 'broken' as far as THEY are concerned; it is working PERFECTLY WELL for their greedy ends... why change a good thing for themselves ?
they will not...
in short, i have little/no hope that a broken, corrupted system (for us 99%) will be forced to change by using a broken, corrupt system controlled by the 1%...
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Campaign Finance Reform. . .
If our elected representatives are to represent the interest's of the citizen's of their state, then any contributions should come exclusively from the citizens of that state.
Our current system is like someone working for company A, but receiving the majority of there income for there competitor, company B. Without that changing, congress will keep grabbing there ankles for money, and we will continue to be the one's walking funny the next day!
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Translation: OMG! OMG! The FCC is about to vote on Title II in February! OMG! We have to ram something through Congress quick! Our telcom lobbying investors demand it! OMG!
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A Truly Free Internet
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Corporate owned is anything but 'free'
Get public money, build on public land, use public spectrum, and they get to deal with public 'interference'. They want total control, then they get nothing from the public or government, and have to do everything on their own, with absolutely no help from anyone else.
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It is ridiculous to expect congressmen to have a basic understanding of how the internet works or the ramifications/fallout from uninformed policy decisions.
Perhaps a qualified panel of technology experts be created to advise our elected talking heads, before they go off and do more damage than good.
Senator Upton is probably accepting more than campaign contributions from Comcast, he is probably getting technology advice as well. Great, just what we don't need.
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posting nice
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