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The Federal Communications Commission has denied petitions from telecommunications industry trade groups to stop implementation of Open Internet rules while legal challenges move forward:
In its ruling, the FCC declared that the petitioners could not establish reasonable grounds to stay the rules, even with the court appeal currently ongoing. In order to do so, the FCC said, a petitioner must not only show that they are likely to win the case and would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay, but also show that a stay is in the public interest and would not harm other parties.
"Petitioners have failed to demonstrate that they are likely to succeed on the merits," the FCC said. "The Commission’s classification of fixed and mobile [broadband internet access service] as telecommunications services falls well within the Commission’s statutory authority, is consistent with Supreme Court precedent, and fully complies with the Administrative Procedure Act."
Though it wasn't what opponents were hoping to hear, the ruling is far from the end of the road in the fight over the FCC rules. Even as the commission moves forward, legal challenges could still roll back the regulations.
The move to dismiss the broadband industry petitions for a stay is no surprise, but the FCC's denial sets up the next phase in the net neutrality legal battle. Now the groups will ask a court to halt the reclassification pending a final outcome. If they can't get a stay from a judge, they will have to abide by the reclassification until their full challenge of the FCC's ruling gets its day in court, which could take years.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:34PM
Try to stay with me here. My views are not hypocritical at all, and here is why.
The telecoms are busy raping you, me, government, small business, big business, and anyone else not previously mentioned. The telecoms are the gatekeepers - you pay them, or you don't get internet. You cannot compete with them, period. You either do business their way, or you don't do business.
SN controls nothing outside of it's own site. You can take it or leave it, and they can't follow you to another site to block your interactions there. No site on the internet has any control over what you do on the internet, once you leave it's site. (well, with the exception of a drive by malware installation.)
You are completely free to start your own site, sell subscriptions, solicit donations, sell gimmicks and gadgetry with your logo on it - whatever you choose to do. You are just as free to go back to /. or to join some other geek site that is less slash-like. SN is not a gatekeeper. SN cannot control your usage of the internet.
There are sites on the internet that I truly despise, such as stormfront. If the stormfront people had their way, a lot of the internet would simply disappear. No more black interest sites, for starters - it would all be outlawed. Fortunately for all of us, stormfront is no more of a gatekeeper than SN is.
Can you now see why I hold different standards for a site like SN, and the telecoms? I certainly hope that I've cleared that up for you.
Of course, you could have cleared it up for yourself, with a little critical thinking.