Finally making good on the Obama campaign’s promise of net neutrality, the new FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has promised in no uncertain terms that he will enforce net neutrality principles.
“One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles,” he said in an interview conducted by The Hill.
It is a statement of intent that apparently includes plans to keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web traffic and slow downloads, according to The Hill.
But the FCC’s stance on net neutrality does not go unchallenged, most of all by Comcast which has been particularly outspoken about its objections. The Philadelphia-based cable operator has alleged in an unfolding DC court case that the FCC had no legal grounds to sanction the company for its 2008 BitTorrent throttling debacle.
“For the FCC to conclude that an entity has acted in violation of federal law and to take enforcement action for such a violation, there must have been ‘law’ to violate,” Comcast argued in its opening brief in the DC case. “Here, no such law existed.”
While Comcast argues that the scope of the FCC’s powers do not empower the body to sanction, the FCC has maintained that they are not expressly forbidden from the actions they took against the ISP last summer. Given this level of legal ambiguity, it is clear that some sort of legislative mechanism is required to support the FCC’s quest to keep the Internet open.
That support may be coming in the form of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 penned by House Reps John Markey (D-MA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) in late July. The IFPA essentially adds an enforcement clause to the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement (PDF):
To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.
To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.
When asked how the FCC would treat this legislation, Genachowski said that the FCC would be on hand to support it with facts and data. Meanwhile, the fresh FCC chair vowed that he would let everyone know if the FCC did not have the tools to enforce net neutrality.
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