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Several members are reporting on a potentially disastrous change of course by regulators:

Rune of Doom writes:

After the FCC's Net Neutrality rules were struck down by a federal appeals court three months ago there was some speculation that it might reclassify ISPs as common carriers in order to preserve Net Neutrality. That seems like wishful thinking, now that Tom Wheeler, the former cable and wireless industry lobbyist who heads the agency under President Obama has announced plans to allow carriers to charge extra for preferential delivery of content.

fadrian writes:

The New York Times reports that, after a recent SCOTUS ruling ripped apart current net neutrality rules, the FCC has decided that net neutrality isn't worth arguing over. It's now perfectly fine for carriers (including your last mile providers) to charge different rates for different data. If Congress wants to change this, they can, but until then, the FCC has decided that this debate isn't worth debating any more.

davester666 writes:

Evidently, ISPs should be able to charge whatever they can get from web sites in order for you to see them. Never mind that this is the opposite of what Wheeler, the head of the FCC, and who is proposing these changes, has been saying all along, that he wasn't an industry shill and would fight hard to keep net neutrality alive.

hash14 writes:

Ars Technica reports on an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal about the FCC voting on new rules "that would allow content companies to pay Internet service providers for special access to consumers." The report describes that content providers would have to pay for "preferential treatment" of traffic over ISP networks and that the FCC will mediate whether the terms are "commercially reasonable" on a case-by-case basis. Ironically, on the same day, the CTIA announced that it will be hiring another former FCC Chairman, Meredith Attwell Baker, who approved Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal while serving as Chairman. Of course, one must ask whether the FCC would really act as a balanced mediator with respect to these "commercially reasonable" terms between content providers and ISPs, given the latter's close revolving door relationship with the government agency.

mendax writes:

It seems that the FCC has made a U-turn in terms of policy regarding Net Neutrality. It seems that the party is over and that the big guys are now going to have to pay more to stream to us, and we're going to have to pay as well. It makes me feel fortunate, however, that I only rent DVD's from a local RedBox.