[Lawtan]

From my Facebook post on it:

"Okay, on the conflict with "net neutrality" - I somewhat understand what part of the issue is.

So, the Court of Appeals had earlier struck down the FCC's policy promoting "net neutrality" due to not making the internet a service like phone lines, yet restricting the market for broadband connections. In their minds, it was "having your cake and eating it, too."

Now, were the internet to be made such a service, it would give government increased control (and increased, potentially out of date, regulation of the internet). This would likely kill several indie (independent) things that are not quite understandable within modern law.

And, were the broadband connection market allowed open, you would most likely see the "nightmare scenario" of rich people/websites paying for faster internet "bundles", and the poor having their choices of what they can access, and how fast they can access it, restrained greatly.

To the people, more than stupid videos, games, cats, and all, the internet is a chance for near-equal market. Between Wikis, the Internet Archive, Project Gutenburg, the release of Tesla's Patents, archives of Leonardo da Vinci's and others' old journals, Kickstarter, Online universities and open-source learning guides and material, Indigogo, Free tools for making digital art, 3D rendering, and music, Indie Game sites, Online Dictionaries/Thesauruses, and many other tools...people who are being pressured by the piss-poor regulations and laws of the last decade-and-a-half...still have a chance.

So...from what I understand, the FCC has opened up a 60 day period of open debate to find a solution satisfactory to all parties involved. Here's hoping that the new regulations of Internet 3.0 will be favorable to the continued conditions of an equal internet. When I can think of a good solution myself, I know I will write to them about it.

...I also half-want to pour green slime all over the Court of Appeals, but that would be immature."

...as an additional note, it was the Courts who said the FCC could make the rules in the first place...

FCC on the situation

Hyperbole of a world without open internet (without "net neutrality")

EFF Foundation on it

Forbes on the Issue