In a bit of good news for the Obama administration (and most Americans), the U.S. D.C Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's Open Internet Order rules:
High-speed internet service can be defined as a utility, a federal court has ruled, a decision clearing the way for more rigorous policing of broadband providers and greater protections for web users.
The court's decision upholds the F.C.C. on the declaration of broadband as a utility, the most significant aspect of the rules. That has broad-reaching implications for web and telecommunications companies and signals a shift in the government's view of broadband as a service that should be equally accessible to all Americans, rather than a luxury that does not need close government supervision.
The court's opinion can be found here.
takyon: Also at Tom's Hardware. Alternate link for the Appeals Court decision.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2016, @08:34AM
It is the content origin that determines if it is zero-rated, not the type of content. Good luck "encoding" your content onto the officially permitted servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2016, @10:06AM
No. It's a common misconception, but zero rating does not necessarily depend on origin. For example AT&T zero rates HTTP requests for "att.com" domains regardless of IP, and it's possible to forge headers to connect to an arbitrary server instead. For example T-Mobile zero rates audio by looking at the content because radio sites stream audio from various cloud providers, and it's possible to stream audio from an arbitrary server instead. For example Verizon zero rates DNS queries, and it's possible to encapsulate data in DNS to tunnel through an arbitrary server instead. See at least three mobile carriers do zero rating based on content and not origin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2016, @05:30PM
> For example AT&T zero rates HTTP requests for "att.com" domains regardless of IP,
citation required
and even if it is true, that's a loophole that can't last in the face of any significant exploitation