[colug-432] Net Neutrality

[Rob Funk]

Bill Yang wrote:
> Wasn't the reason that the rules were dinged in the DC District Court due
> to a lack of legal authority?  As in, the FCC can't enforce rules it
> doesn't have the legal authority to issue...  I'm pretty sure we don't want
> to change *that*!
> 
> Seems as though there may be a bigger problem than a simple petition can
> correct, and the petition may not be going to the right place to make the
> changes, because I'm pretty sure the FCC's authority comes from
> authorizations from Congress, not from the executive branch.
> 
> Maybe I've misunderstood what was going on.

I think you do misunderstand.

In 2002, the FCC classified Internet Services as Information Services,
rather than as Telecommunications Services. This meant that Internet
Services would not fall under Common Carrier rules.
More recently, the FCC came up with Net Neutrality rules which
essentially try to apply a few of the Common Carrier rules to Internet
Services. The court then said they can't do that, and that if the FCC
wants to apply those rules they need to reclassify the services to fall
under Common Carrier rules.

The FCC has the power to do that reclassification, just as they did in
2002. The FCC chair seems very reluctantant to do so though.

Petitions may or may not help. They're just a form of political
pressure that the people making the decisions have no obligation to
listen to. But sometimes those people see a petition and realize just
how many people are paying attention, and are influenced.
BTW, this is probably the third or fourth petition I've seen on this
topic, all saying basically the same thing.