Senate votes down anti-Net Neutrality resolution

I suppose Obama won't have the chance to veto the bill after all.

The US Senate has decided the Federal Communications Commission's Net Neutrality rules are OK after all. Senators voted down S.J. Res 6 ("Disapproval of Federal Communications Commission Rule Regulating the Internet and Broadband Industry Practices") which criticized the FCC's rules, 52-46 on Thursday morning. President Obama had threatened to veto the resolution had it landed on his desk.

The Senate's vote was cheered by advocates of Net Neutrality rules. "We are pleased that the Senate stopped this dangerous resolution in its tracks," said Free Press Action Fund President and CEO Craig Aaron in a statement. "The Senate sent a strong signal today to would-be gatekeepers that the free and open Internet needs to stay that way. The American public doesn't want phone and cable companies undercutting competition, deciding which websites will work, or censoring what people can do online."

There are still other threats to the FCC's regulatory regime, most notable lawsuits filed by telecoms opposing Net Neutrality rules.

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Obama Pledges to Veto Anti-Net Neutrality Legislation

Interesting bit of convoluted politics popping up. Not too long ago, the FCC implemented rules favoring the concept of Net Neutrality. The concept is that internet service providers could, potentially, start providing premium services to those websites and pages that can afford it. That is, if, say, YouTube wanted to buy the rights to have higher streaming priority from an ISP, they could, and when someone tried to access YouTube, their streaming would trump Obscure Website B, who would load slower, etc, because they couldn't afford to buy off the ISP.

I find this interesting, because this is regulation that spurs competition, though in a different field.

By regulating and forcing ISPs to abide by the regulations (which haven't gone into effect yet), they are essentially creating a level playing field on the internet itself. This is regulation that (in theory) actually favors the little guy (on the internet) on some level, though probably to ISPs detriment. This doesn't happen terribly often. Hurting one capitalist market in favor of another.

Anyway, the Senate doesn't like it, and proposed a resolution to end those rules, which Obama plans to veto.

WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama likely would veto upcoming legislation that would unwind net-neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission adopted last year.

Senate Journal Resolution 6, which is expected to go to the Senate floor perhaps as early as this week, “would undermine a fundamental part of the Nation’s Open Internet and innovation strategy — an enforceable, effective but flexible policy for keeping the internet free and open,” the White House said. The House passed a similar measure last spring, and Obama had threatened to veto that, too, if it landed on his desk.

The Senate measure, which mirrors the House resolution, says Congress “disapproves” of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, which “shall have no force or effect.” The rules, which don’t go into effect until Nov. 20, bar broadband providers like Comcast and Time Warner Cable from playing favorites with internet traffic, while a lighter set of rules applies to mobile broadband providers like

Not really sure how I feel about the whole situation. But I think I'm the FCC/Obama's side on this one. Maybe. Possibly.

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