When FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski uses words like “regulate” and “Internet,” they mean precisely what he wants them to mean when he says them. So when he says he does not want to regulate the Internet, he means that he only wants to treat the Internet the way he treats your local NBC affiliate broadcasting USA Curling to your home. That affiliate, of course, is fully regulated by the FCC.
Now a federal court appears poised to say no, that Comcast is right, and the law does not give the FCC the authority to regulate firms that provide information services, such as ISPs. In response to such a ruling, which would kill the vast “Net Neutrality” regulatory scheme before it started, the FCC is going to declare that ISPs are no longer IT firms. In other words, Julius Genachowski will take an unfavorable court ruling, change the meanings of the words, and do what the court just told him is illegal. He is arrogant and believes himself above all oversight and control.
Don’t think that’s a likely outcome? Every big name in the ISP industry says otherwise in a letter to Julius Genachowski acquired by The Hill.
Read the letter for yourself if you like, it’s a document steeped in the language of government written by a committee of lawyers. So it’s no Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia dissent with a scathing catch phrase to quote, and if I quote it directly I’ll end up making this post itself three pages.
My coverage of Net Neutrality here has been sustained over time and in depth on the issue. If you want a sound bite, I’ll give it to you:”The FCC wants to regulate every private computer network on the Internet, which will result in higher costs, less access, worse service, and the effects will ripple through the whole economy.” If you want the comprehensive case, and specifically how the FCC’s Net Neutrality plan to Single Payer Internet what Obamacare is to Single Payer Medicine, please check the archives. Key phrases to look up: Free Press, Save the Internet, Google, FCC, Julius Genachowski.
In any case, please consider commenting at the FCC against Net Neutrality, proceeding number 09-191. Tell them that free competition will punish bad behavior, and that remind them that today, wired broadband Internet access is cheaper and easier to get than the regulated wired phone, wireless phone, and cable television markets. Ask them to keep their hands off of our Internet.