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Saw this in the news, seems pretty recent and I figured there could
well be flow on effects here in terms of precedent at least.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/Net-Neutrality">http://www.whitehouse.gov/Net-Neutrality</a><br>
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Text of the statement<br>
<br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">An open Internet is essential to
the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life.
By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new
political movements, and bringing communities closer together,
it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences
the world has ever known.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Net neutrality” has been built
into the fabric of the Internet since its creation — but it is
also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot
allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best
access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace
for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of
almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest
possible rules to protect net neutrality.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">When I was a candidate for this
office, I made clear my commitment to a free and open Internet,
and my commitment remains as strong as ever. Four years ago, the
FCC tried to implement rules that would protect net neutrality
with little to no impact on the telecommunications companies
that make important investments in our economy. After the rules
were challenged, the court reviewing the rules agreed with the
FCC that net neutrality was essential for preserving an
environment that encourages new investment in the network, new
online services and content, and everything else that makes up
the Internet as we now know it. Unfortunately, the court
ultimately struck down the rules — not because it disagreed with
the need to protect net neutrality, but because it believed the
FCC had taken the wrong legal approach.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">The FCC is an independent
agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone. I believe
the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net
neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the
phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting
what you can do or see online. The rules I am asking for are
simple, common-sense steps that reflect the Internet you and I
use every day, and that some ISPs already observe. These
bright-line rules include:</tt></p>
<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(75,
75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', 'Nimbus
Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal;
font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing: normal;
line-height: 19.6000003814697px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing:
border-box; font-weight: bold;">No blocking.</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If a consumer requests
access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your
ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every
player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP —
gets a fair shot at your business.</tt></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing:
border-box; font-weight: bold;">No throttling.</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Nor should ISPs be
able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up
others — through a process often called “throttling” — based
on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.</tt></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing:
border-box; font-weight: bold;">Increased transparency.</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The connection between
consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the
only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am
also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency
authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to
apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection
between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.</tt></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing:
border-box; font-weight: bold;">No paid prioritization.</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Simply put: No service
should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a
fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level
playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I
have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid
prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar
effect.</tt></li>
</ul>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">If carefully designed, these
rules should not create any undue burden for ISPs, and can have
clear, monitored exceptions for reasonable network management
and for specialized services such as dedicated, mission-critical
networks serving a hospital. But combined, these rules mean
everything for preserving the Internet’s openness.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">The rules also have to reflect
the way people use the Internet today, which increasingly means
on a mobile device. I believe the FCC should make these rules
fully applicable to mobile broadband as well, while recognizing
the special challenges that come with managing wireless
networks.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">To be current, these rules must
also build on the lessons of the past. For almost a century, our
law has recognized that companies who connect you to the world
have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy
over access in and out of your home or business. That is why a
phone call from a customer of one phone company can reliably
reach a customer of a different one, and why you will not be
penalized solely for calling someone who is using another
provider. It is common sense that the same philosophy should
guide any service that is based on the transmission of
information — whether a phone call, or a packet of data.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">So the time has come for the FCC
to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance
and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other
vital services do. To do that, I believe the FCC should
reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the
Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from
rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband
services. This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs
provide to American homes and businesses, and the
straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network
works for everyone — not just one or two companies.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">Investment in wired and wireless
networks has supported jobs and made America the center of a
vibrant ecosystem of digital devices, apps, and platforms that
fuel growth and expand opportunity. Importantly, network
investment remained strong under the previous net neutrality
regime, before it was struck down by the court; in fact, the
court agreed that protecting net neutrality helps foster more
investment and innovation. If the FCC appropriately forbears
from the Title II regulations that are not needed to implement
the principles above — principles that most ISPs have followed
for years — it will help ensure new rules are consistent with
incentives for further investment in the infrastructure of the
Internet.</tt></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 1.5;
color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 200; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tt
style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Internet has been one of the
greatest gifts our economy — and our society — has ever known.
The FCC was chartered to promote competition, innovation, and
investment in our networks. In service of that mission, there is
no higher calling than protecting an open, accessible, and free
Internet. I thank the Commissioners for having served this cause
with distinction and integrity, and I respectfully ask them to
adopt the policies I have outlined here, to preserve this
technology’s promise for today, and future generations to come.</tt></p>
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