Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps sent the Washington Post a point of information concerning a court ruling that found the FCC had overstepped its authority in its ruling on the Comcast/BitTorrent service blocking controversy. And he also took issue with WaPo’s support of an internet management proposal put forth by Verizon and Google.
Copps said that the DC Circuit merely said that the FCC overstepped its authority under the Title I regulatory regime that earlier George W. Bush-era FCC’s used for the internet. “This was a predictable outcome of FCC actions during the Bush administration that consciously moved broadband Internet access from Title II, which would have supported the commission’s authority, to a murky place that invited court challenge,” wrote Copps.
He said that the Verizon-Google proposal would create a two-tiered internet “at the expense of the open Internet we now have.” He said it would exclude wireless and protect large providers rather than consumers. Calling for putting the internet back under Title II “where it belongs,” he concluded, “I thought we’d had enough of that. To expect big telecom and cable duopolies to protect consumers while a toothless agency stands quietly by is to expect what never was nor will be.”
