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California Senate Defies FCC, Approves Net Neutrality Law (arstechnica.com) 292

The California State Senate yesterday approved a bill to impose net neutrality restrictions on Internet service providers, challenging the Federal Communications Commission attempt to preempt such rules. From a report: The FCC's repeal of its own net neutrality rules included a provision to preempt state and municipal governments from enforcing similar rules at the local level. But the governors of Montana and New York have signed executive orders to enforce net neutrality and several states are considering net neutrality legislation.

The FCC is already being sued by t21 states and the District of Columbia, which are trying to reverse the net neutrality repeal and the preemption of state laws. Attempts to enforce net neutrality rules at the state or local level could end up being challenged in separate lawsuits.

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California Senate Defies FCC, Approves Net Neutrality Law

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  • by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @03:46PM (#56035059) Homepage

    If we let them get away with this, soon we'll be seeing Schedule 1 narcotics sold in corner shops!

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Too bad pot's not a hallucinogen. I wouldn't mind being able to buy it in the corner shop, but I guess I'll have to make do with smack.

  • What argument is there, that would support allowing the States to impose addition restrictions on communication-providers, that would not also apply to allowing same to homeowner associations [atgf.com]? And vice versa?

    Personally, I don't think, FCC should have any power over the HA's either — but many people don't agree. These people should support FCC's primate over States too, or else their view is self-inconsistent and thus automatically and objectively wrong...

    • You do know that the FCC has asserted it's authority over state, local and land use contracts (I.e HOAs) with it's OTARD rule, where they specifically disallowed any rules which prevented a homeowner from putting up a TV antenna. They also require "reasonable accommodation" of armature radio stations by state and local regulations (though refused to override your HOA on this issue).

      It's pretty much a done deal that the FCC has the authority to do this if they wish....

      • hey also require "reasonable accommodation" of armature radio stations by state and local regulations

        Well, you wouldn't want your armature wound improperly, would you?

        I suppose armatures are regulated by FCC field offices.

        I'll just motor off, now...

      • by mi ( 197448 )

        You do know that the FCC has asserted it's authority over state, local and land use contracts

        I do indeed. And I disapprove of it as a government overreach.

        But most /.-ers celebrate that, while denouncing the same Comission's other, most recent, overreach — the pre-emption of the State's attempts to impose their own "net neutrality".

        You can approve of both, or reject both. But you can not pick only one of these — and remain self-consistent. That was my point.

        • So you claim that all states' rights situations are exactly like any other states' rights situation? And that there's no ground to look at possible differences and base one's position on those?

    • by rahvin112 ( 446269 ) on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @06:18PM (#56036199)

      Here's a simple answer for you. Congress delegated regulatory authority for a few things to the FCC.

      The first and most important delegation is the wireless spectrum, they gave the authority to the FCC to regulate the use of the radio spectrum to prevent interference and maximize the value. This power is essentially unrestricted with regard to wireless transmissions under the conditions Congress placed on the regulation (the FCC can't regulate military communications for example).

      The Second is congress delegated to the FCC the ability to regulate wire-line services declared to be "Title II", basically services deemed to be essential. This power also allows the FCC to decide if something is Title II or not. In the early days of telephone this was to allow the FCC to regulate interstate communication and was later expanded to allow them to regulate the POTS system for things like 911 etc, it later was expanded to cover Cable TV (which was then removed in the 90's with the exception of explicit content) The Title II regulations are the only authority under which the FCC can regulate wire-line services at this time. The last court case the FCC lost explicitly noted this. If it's not Title II, the FCC doesn't have ANY authority to regulate and that includes blocking state level regulation. Without Title II they can't do anything and they've been stomped in courts at least 3 times for trying to do so without the Title II decleration.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @03:53PM (#56035109)

    When Republicans talk about "States rights", they really mean the right of states to pass laws that discriminate against people. They do not mean the right for states to establish their own drug laws [politico.com] nor for states to adopt laws like net neutrality [arstechnica.com].

    See, Republicans only complain about the big bad federal government when they pass laws they don't like. In other words, Republicans want to be bigots, and want to pass laws to support their bigotry, and cry "states rights" only to support their hateful agenda.

    • It's almost as if people support over-reaching regulation when it benefits them, and not when it doesn't. Weird huh?
  • It looks like California's law attempts to regulate the businesses directly.

    The versions in New York and Montana are different, they deal with the state's business agreements. That is, if the company doesn't stand by the same net neutrality rules the state will stop the business.

    Montana certainly isn't a big state for funding and they said they've got about $50M in contracts. Losing that much business wouldn't directly hurt AT&T or similar companies, but awarding a $50M contract plus rollout costs ac

  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @04:12PM (#56035261) Journal

    So now we've got Net Neutrality, abundant cheap produce, legal weed, blondes in short-shorts, and surfing. It's 75 degrees and sunny on the 30th of January and I'm about to ride my bike down to the beach.

    Suck it, red state losers. You can keep your meth, guns and fat girls. If this is socialism, I'm in for two.

    https://youtu.be/R_q6aRwoV3M [youtu.be]

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