Posted on 01/15/2010 9:03:08 AM PST by IrishMike
The Federal Communications Commission is considering aggressive moves to stake out its authority to oversee consumer access to the Internet, as a recent court hearing and industry opposition have cast doubt on its power over Web service providers.
The FCC, which regulates public access to telephone and television services, has been working to claim the same role for the Internet. The stakes are high, as the Obama administration pushes an agenda of open broadband access for all and big corporations work to protect their enormous investments in a new and powerful medium.
"This is a pivotal moment," said Ben Scott, director of policy at the public interest group Free Press. The government wants to treat broadband Internet as a national infrastructure, he said, like phone lines or the broadcast spectrum. But federal regulators are grappling with older policies that do not clearly protect consumers' access to the Web, their privacy or prices of service.
The issue may have reached a turning point last week when a federal appeals court questioned the limits of the FCC's authority in a 2008 case involving Comcast. The agency had ordered the Internet and cable giant to stop blocking subscribers' access to the online file-sharing service BitTorrent. But in an oral hearing last Friday, three judges grilled an FCC lawyer over whether the agency had acted outside the scope of its authority.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Bump.
Democrats and msm hate the internet because real news gets out,they must stop the truth to keep power.
Until then, there is nothing in the US Code of Federal Regulations that grants the FCC the authority to regulate "the internet" as a common carrier.
They need to replicate something like the Communications Act of 1934. Declare that the Web (like the Airwaves) are the property of “the people”. Then they will have a good legal excuse to take it away from us /sarc
They’ve already sent warnings to mommy bloggers and raided an online travel writer... so yes, they do want to control content.
They clearly look at the FCC as a censorship board. It’s not.
Now they want to censor the internet.
They’ll find a way to do that - some how, some way.
"Fascist Communication Commission."
I hope they do censor the Internet. It simply means the quicker demise of the Obama Fascist Junta now controlling our nation.
1.5 Galaxie convertibles!
Yeah!
Censorship is a nice byproduct.
Taxation and access fees to be paid to the government is the real goal.
You want your own domain? Go through a “vetting process” that will be done by a government bureaucracy which will be staffed by liberals.
Ideology will trump money, and they will make their decisions on that basis, but the money will be nice for them as well.
The list, ping
hope theres lots of candy coated clowns in DC soon
That’s a really nice mother-in-law seat.
Perhaps its because ....... HE'S NOT an American (by birth, that is.)
.
A good reason to stay active in the Tea Party movement. It is good to be out there with tons of good people and then compare the coverage on the PropaMedia Obamacast.
If you’ve been there and seen it suppressed, then you start really understanding and thinking about what else is being suppressed and where our information comes from.
We have to stop allowing the DemLeft the privilege of staging themselves as the lighthouse when they are the treacherous rocky shoals. We need our spotlights on full.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
See this article from today:
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