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July 2010
What is OpenMedia.ca?
Eriko Furukawa
After losing an important legal battle the FCC is trying to quickly take steps in order to circumvent the threat to
Network Neutrality in the United States. A ‘third-way’ to regulate ISP was proposed, which is now facing many
barriers for implementation, one being the members of Congress who are forcing the FCC to abandon its plan to
regulate Internet Service Providers.
On April 6th 2010 the federal court in Washington tling the FCC was out its mandated jurisdiction to
D.C. ruled that the FCC (Federal Communications stop or punish the ISP.
Commission, the regulatory body for Communica-
tions in America) had no legal authority to impose net The ruling made by the court has threatened net
neutrality regulations on to Internet Service Providers. neutrality in the United States as the FCC is no longer
The ruling was handed out in response to the FCC’s allowed to impose net neutrality regulations, giving
punishment of Comcast, a major ISP in the United the ISPs within the sector a free reign to throttle. To
State, when it was caught throttling BitTorrent traffic. circumvent the threat to Net Neutrality, the FCC’s
The communications regulatory body under its own chairman Julius Genachowski proposed a ‘third way’
mandate had no regulatory authority to penalize Com- regulatory mandate, which would allow the FCC
cast, as the FCC has classified DSL broadband service to monitor the transmission component of Internet
under Title I as an “information service” rather than access. This way the FCC controls issues regarding
under Title II “telecommunication service.” What throttling, but cannot and will not monitor informa-
that essentially meant was that under the information tion being transmitted over the lines. As stated by the
service category the FCC is not allowed to physically FCC commissioner Julius Genachowski in a statement
regulate the workings of ISPs, so if an ISP was throt- May 6th 2010: “ …the approach is narrow. It will treat
openletter page 2
only the transmission component of broadband access But there is much to standing in their way, the “third
service as a telecommunications service while preserv- way” proposal has to go through congress, where many
ing the longstanding consensus that the FCC should its members are asking the FCC to reevaluate its plans.
not regulate the Internet, including web-based services As the FCC looks for clarification from congress, it
and applications, e-commerce sites, and online con- will be seeking comments from the public till July 15th
tent.” 2010 at broadband.gov.
With the “third way” proposal, the FCC believes it This matter raises issues as to how Canada should deal
will have the authority to write and enforce rules that with its network neutrality issues, are there lessons
would protect consumers and Internet content provid- that the Canadian regulatory body CRTC can learn
ers from restrictions imposed by broadband providers. from this case? Right now the onus of reporting ISP
As outlined in the above-mentioned statement the throttling to the CRTC is on the consumer, as the
third-way approach will: regulatory body does not directly monitor throttling.
Shouldn’t CRTC become more proactive regarding
• Recognize the transmission component of monitoring and making sure that throttling does not
broadband access service--and only this compo- take place in order to protect the Canadian consumer.
nent--as a telecommunications service;” Should the CRTC become more hands-on regarding
• Apply only a handful of provisions of Title II network neutrality? Whatever happens next regarding
(Sections 201, 202, 208, 222, 254, and 255) the FCC’s mandate, the outcome will have a major
that, prior to the Comcast decision, were widely impact on future net neutrality issues, not only in the
believed to be within the Commission’s purview US but in other countries as well.
for broadband;
• Simultaneously renounce--that is, forbear from-- A link to see an interview with the FCC chairman
application of the many sections of the Commu- explaining the “third-way” approach: http://news.cnet.
nications Act that are unnecessary and inappro- com/8301-13578_3-20001825-38.html?tag=mncol;txt
priate for broadband access service; and
• Put in place up-front forbearance and mean-
ingful boundaries to guard against regulatory
overreach.
openletter page 3
OpenMedia at UBC
Sociology on Brave
New Media at UBC
Ben Pierce
openletter page 4