Internet pioneers and leaders sign open letter urging FCC to cancel net neutrality vote

midian182

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There are only two days left until we find out if net neutrality protections will be repealed. Fighting against the action are more than 20 internet pioneers and leading figures who have signed an open letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to cancel Thursday’s vote.

Notable signatories include Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web; Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple; Vint Cerf, one of “the fathers of the internet;” Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation; and Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, pioneers of public-key cryptography.

The letter states that the FCC’s proposed Restoring Internet Freedom order is “based on a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology.” It goes on to say that these flaws and inaccuracies were pointed out in a 43-page long joint comment signed by over 200 prominent internet figures in July.

The letter was addressed to the Senate's commerce subcommittee on communications, technology, innovation and the internet. It adds that the FCC has ignored both the comments made in July and those from the millions of internet users fighting to save net neutrality.

"Over 23 million comments have been submitted by a public that is clearly passionate about protecting the internet. The FCC could not possibly have considered these adequately.”

“The FCC’s rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to repeal net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create. It should be stopped.”

Despite being almost universally condemned, it seems certain that the FCC will approve the proposed order. The commission claims the impact of such a move has been exaggerated, and that it would help improve competition and stop the government interfering with the internet.

There may be some hope for net neutrality advocates: as the FCC proposal is so extreme and lacks evidence supporting the change, it could be shot down in court.

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Imagine a world where oligopolistic ISPs provide high speed reliable service and modest prices without any gimicky fees. Yes, Ajit, there is certainly a Santa (well, at least that is how the ISPs see you).
 
98.5% of the public opposed the proposed changes to Net Neutrality when the FCC left it open for comment. No amount of outcry from us will get over the wall of money in front of this Dbag.

Having it shot down in court is the only bit of hope here.

Should it pass, the only possible positive I can see coming from this is shedding a light on how incredibly flawed our "democracy" has become.
 
I think already making clear they don’t care peoples input. They are not canceling. I think funny the reason is to not govern the internet. Net neutrality regulates ISP. ISP is not the internet. It only how you access it. I like idea of not regulating when not necessary. Most places have isp monopoly, so regulators probably necessity though. Especially when so many isp have conflicts of interest by being part of bigger business or also selling content they want you to buying from them and not competition company. I not part of political system, but I would vote to have some regulations to help people have a fair access to the internet.
 
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I not part of political system, but I would vote to have some regulations to help people have a fair access to the internet.
First, your sentence structure is terrible.
Secondly the regulation this article speaks of does nothing to help fair access.
 
I not part of political system, but I would vote to have some regulations to help people have a fair access to the internet.
First, your sentence structure is terrible.
Secondly the regulation this article speaks of does nothing to help fair access.
IMO, the post was not from a native language speaker, and using the super secret non-native language decoder ring, the post is in favor of net neut.
 
There are actually two ways this can be challenged in court.

The first is that Pai did not follow proper procedure. He is required when issuing a PRM (proposed rule making) to take and consider comments of all citizens. Two problems with that though. 1. The server collecting comments was down during peak comment collection. 2. There have been many fake comments posted with nothing done about them. There is no way you can honestly say you considered the opinion of US citizens when you can't even be bothered to remove known fakes.

The second is based off his argument against NN. What you have is Pai and the ISP industry saying one thing, while everyone else, including the founders of the internet, web service companies, and computer experts across all stripes, saying they like NN. It is Pai's job to take special notice of experts int he field he is supposed to be regulating. Him ignoring them is akin to ignoring expert testimony in a court room. The only difference here is that we have Thousands of experts saying Pai is wrong. I highly doubt that Pai's position stands up in a courtroom, his position is in obvious benefit to the ISPs and he even cites studies funded by the ISPs themselves.
 
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There are actually two ways this can be challenged in court.

The first is that Pai did not follow proper procedure. He is required when issuing a PRM (proposed rule making) to take and consider comments of all citizens. Two problems with that though. 1. The server collecting comments was down during peak comment collection. 2. There have been many fake comments posted with nothing done about them. There is no way you can honestly say you considered the opinion of US citizens when you can't even be bothered to remove known fakes.

The second is based off his argument against NN. What you have is Pai and the ISP industry saying one thing, while everyone else, including the founders of the internet, web service companies, and computer experts across all stripes, is saying they like NN. It is Pai's job to take special notice of experts int he field he is supposed to be regulating. Him ignoring them is akin to ignoring expert testimony in a court room. The only difference here is that we have Thousands of experts saying Pai is wrong. I highly doubt that Pai's position stands up in a courtroom, his position is in obvious benefit to the ISPs and he even cites studies funded by the ISPs themselves.
Good observations! Basically, Pai already has two relatively easily proven strikes against his proclamation before it even gets to court. There is no doubt that it will go to court.
 
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