The U.S. Federal Communications Commission next month is planning a vote to kill Obama-era rules demanding fair treatment of web traffic and may decide to vacate the regulations altogether, according to people familiar with the plans.
The move would reignite a years-long debate that has seen Republicans and broadband providers seeking to eliminate the rules, while Democrats and technology companies support them. The regulations passed in 2015 bar broadband providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. from interfering with web traffic sent by Google, Facebook Inc. and others.
[...] Pai plans to seek a vote in December, said two people who asked not to be identified because the matter hasn't been made public. As the head of a Republican majority, he is likely to win a vote on whatever he proposes.
[...] The agency declined to comment on the timing of a vote. "We don't have anything to report at this point," said Tina Pelkey, a spokeswoman for the commission.
(Score: 1) by mobydisk on Thursday November 16 2017, @10:05PM (2 children)
FYI: There's actually laws preventing someone from doing what you describe in your analogy. The Common Carrier laws forbid, for example, the shipping company from modifying or substituting the product.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday November 16 2017, @10:15PM
And part of what this vote is doing, along with some previous regulatory changes, is removing any kind of common carrier obligations from ISPs. They've already been working towards getting rid of those obligations [federalregister.gov].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday November 17 2017, @01:28AM
https://ting.com/blog/getting-straight-about-common-carriers-and-title-ii/ [ting.com]
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