A DU Challenge---Draft Net Neutrality Rules better than the FCC--

[The Traveler]

59. Interesting legal challenge

But your argument is bogus.

Seriously. No one here has the time or resources to undertake that sort of legal effort. We are not the FCC. However, that does not mean that such an effort is beyond the means of the Executive Branch. In fact, I am quite certain it is well within its mean. [Edited for clarification.]

(I infer from your tactic and subsequent posts that unless a critic of the Administration has the resources to perform the same function as the Administration, said critic should be silent. You will understand I do not accept that position. But it's a nice try.)

The FCC has reclassified technologies and services before. It will do so again. In this case, it would be apropos because the notion that broadband service providers primarily provide an "integrated information service" (as their primary function) rather than a computer-to-computer communications service is absurd.

Were that the case, I would be designing my systems to be operated over various carriers, for I would have to integrate my systems to their particular interfaces, protocols, and requirements. People use, for example, Comcast to access my systems. But neither Comcast nor I have made any particular effort to make that happen. We both just obey WELL DEFINED COMMUNICATIONS STANDARDS!!!! (Not shouting, just forgot how to italicize. But notice the key word "communication".) Comcast just provides me some decent bandwidth when I am at home.

Ya know, back when the FCC made that classification, a great many people (I was one of them), thought it would lead to tears. It has. The internet plays a role as significant, or more, in the daily communications of Americans citizens as the classic 4 KHz landline (which is now falling into disuse). (There's that word again. Communications. Yeah. As in telecommunications.) So fixing this, or not fixing this, has serious implications. And, me, I'm certain it can be fixed ... and it sounds like the Supreme Court thinks so too.

So, yeah, I'll take your challenge. Budget for this sort of effort is normally on the order of $10M or so. Fork over the cash, and I will hire lawyers and tech consultants necessary to do a good job and will get back to you in a couple of months.

If the Administration WANTS to do that, it can do the same. If you don't think it can, it is now up to you to show that this relatively minor task is beyond the power of the Obama Administration. (Dude pulled off the ACA, a much more legally complex and politically difficult task. I will have trouble accepting that sort of argument without lots of evidence.)

Trav