In a major milestone in the fight over Net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to accept a proposal from Chairman Julius Genachowski. The vote, as expected, was 3-2, with the three Democratic commissioners, including Genachowski, voting in favor and the two Republican commissioners against.
Genachowski said that “for the first time, we’ll have enforceable rules of the road to preserve Internet freedom and openness.” But legal and legislative battles are expected to challenge the new rules, with neither Net-neutrality advocates nor those advocating no rules at all completely happy with the plan.
‘Worse Than Nothing’
For instance, pro-neutrality Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has called the plan “worse than nothing,” while Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) has threatened to defund the FCC’s ability to enforce the new rules.
In a posting earlier this month on the FCC’s blog, Genachowski proposed “basic rules of the road” in order to “preserve the open Internet.” The basics, he wrote, include the right that “Americans have the freedom to access lawful content on the Internet, without discrimination,” so that neither corporations nor government can decide what users can or can’t do on the Net.
Genachowski also said consumers and businesses have a right to basic information about their broadband service, and the Internet “will remain a level playing field.”
This last item is arguably the central issue in the fight over Net neutrality. “Our rules,” Genachowski said, “will protect against corporate gatekeepers prioritizing access to one person’s content over another’s.”
Such “playing favorites” has seen examples in the market in the last few weeks. Earlier this month, Comcast informed telecommunications company Level 3 that it would add a surcharge for Netflix movie-streaming traffic delivered through Level 3 to Comcast’s Internet service. Level 3 protested that, among other things, this would allow Comcast to make Netflix more expensive because it competes…