Democrats’ Bill May Kill Net Neutrality

By on September 28, 2010 in News 25

0_61_waxman_henryWhat a disappointment — did you ever think that the guillotine stroke for net neutrality would come from the left side of the Congressional aisle? Firedoglake discusses a clueless bill, proposed by California Democrat Henry Waxman — it’s a compromise which allows the FCC to dispense fines of up to $2 million to punish rule-breaking broadband providers. The problem is, that’s far too small a sum to actually matter:

Henry Waxman has been trying to enshrine the terrible compromise promulgated by Google and Verizon into law, by pushing a truly terrible bill on broadband that strips the FCC of rulemaking and classification ability, and gives wireless Internet providers carte blanche to discriminate in favor of their products.

The FCC would not be able to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, which three commissioners on the five-member panel have publicly expressed a preference for in the past. The FCC would get to ask nicely to the House and Senate Commerce Committees for additional authority to implement the National Broadband Plan, also at risk under current broadband classification, which was put into place under the Bush Administration.

The Waxman bill again treats “wireline” and “wireless” broadband differently, even though the only difference is that the growth and the future of the Internet lies entirely in wireless. While wireline net neutrality would get enshrined into the law, no such restrictions would be bestowed upon wireless broadband.

This mirrors the Google-Verizon deal. It allows blocking over wireless broadband any peer-to-peer activity or even applications, and merely forces “transparency” rather than a ban on discrimination of lawful traffic. An unnamed source in the National Journal story gets this right: “This bill represents a giant retreat by some of those who claim to support net neutrality and sends the wrong signal to the FCC who will ultimately deal with this issue.”

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  • Vox Penii

    >What a disappointment — did you ever think that the guillotine stroke for net neutrality would come from the left side of the Congressional aisle?

    suckers!

    anyway, net neutrality is a joke; little more than the lament of crybabies who forget that the internet is largely a PRIVATE ENTERPRISE and who think corporations owe ‘em more than they pay for.

  • Andrew

    Are the Democrats really left? They seem far more interested in keeping big business’s workers complacent than in helping the poor.

    • Jasonio

      There are no left parties in the West as far as I know. The democrats are just as likely to sell your employment rights, pensions and mother down the same polluted river as the republicans.

  • Andrew

    Are the Democrats really left? They seem far more interested in keeping big business’s workers complacent than in helping the poor.

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Henry Waxman looks like a somebody should throw him a log to chew on……

    • E.B. Wolf

      I’m sure Google and Verizon already did.

      • Jasonio

        It’s funny. Corruption is supposed to be quite low in the US. But that’s because most of its been legalised and rebranded as “lobbying”.

        • myth_slayer

          “Corruption is supposed to be quite low…”

          I don’t know, dude, you seem to watch too much American TV or something. America is a 100% corrupt culture and society. The old columnist, many years ago at the Washington Post (before it was referred to as WaPo), Drew Pearson, once stated that government works by controlled greed.

          We’ve long since passed into UNCONTROLLED GREED! Everything once illegal has been made legal for the super-rich through predatory legislation (by congress) and predatory jurisprudence (by those crooks on the Supreme Court).

          There is only one solution left for We The People!

  • Anonymous

    Henry Waxman looks like a somebody should throw him a log to chew on……

  • Haystack

    “anyway, net neutrality is a joke; little more than the lament of crybabies who forget that the internet is largely a PRIVATE ENTERPRISE and who think corporations owe ‘em more than they pay for.”

    Or those who have not forgotten that corporations were supposed to have been chartered to act in the PUBLIC INTEREST. If private enterprise monopolizing a service makes it worse than it would otherwise be, the public has every reason to take it away from them.

  • Haystack

    “What a disappointment — did you ever think that the guillotine stroke for net neutrality would come from the left side of the Congressional aisle?”

    We do expect Democrats to be utterly inept. *g*

    • Jasonio

      To govern is to fail.

  • Haystack

    “What a disappointment — did you ever think that the guillotine stroke for net neutrality would come from the left side of the Congressional aisle?”

    We do expect Democrats to be utterly inept. *g*

  • E.B. Wolf

    I’m sure Google and Verizon already did.

  • Andrew

    Which is exactly why some things should be socialized.

  • Jasonio

    It’s funny. Corruption is supposed to be quite low in the US. But that’s because most of its been legalised and rebranded as “lobbying”.

  • Jasonio

    To govern is to fail.

  • Jasonio

    There are no left parties in the West as far as I know. The democrats are just as likely to sell your employment rights, pensions and mother down the same polluted river as the republicans.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    You mean private enterprise built on DARPA’s research, Al Gore’s funding drives to spread cable nationwide, and everyone else’s tax dollars to build a network that was then permitted to become a network for private enterprises???

    Or did you mean some other internet? Cause the one we’re on was created and conceived on the public dole…and that being true, we who paid to build it and use it should decide its future.

  • Anonymous

    “Corruption is supposed to be quite low…”

    I don’t know, dude, you seem to watch too much American TV or something. America is a 100% corrupt culture and society. The old columnist, many years ago at the Washington Post (before it was referred to as WaPo), Drew Pearson, once stated that government works by controlled greed.

    We’ve long since passed into UNCONTROLLED GREED! Everything once illegal has been made legal for the super-rich through predatory legislation (by congress) and predatory jurisprudence (by those crooks on the Supreme Court).

    There is only one solution left for We The People!

  • Anonymous

    The bill should be perfected context dude…

  • rizaaditya

    The bill should be perfected context dude…

  • Haystack

    “anyway, net neutrality is a joke; little more than the lament of crybabies who forget that the internet is largely a PRIVATE ENTERPRISE and who think corporations owe ‘em more than they pay for.”

    Or those who have not forgotten that corporations were supposed to have been chartered to act in the PUBLIC INTEREST. If private enterprise monopolizing a service makes it worse than it would otherwise be, the public has every reason to take it away from them.

  • Andrew

    Which is exactly why some things should be socialized.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    You mean private enterprise built on DARPA’s research, Al Gore’s funding drives to spread cable nationwide, and everyone else’s tax dollars to build a network that was then permitted to become a network for private enterprises???

    Or did you mean some other internet? Cause the one we’re on was created and conceived on the public dole…and that being true, we who paid to build it and use it should decide its future.