In [tiny] victory for pooptator Obama, court backs strict Internet regulation

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-net-neutrality-ruling-
20160614-snap-story.html

Federal regulators can strictly oversee the Internet to ensure that
content flows freely to consumers, a court ruled Tuesday in a major
victory for President Obama and other supporters of the long-pursued
concept of net neutrality.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit dismissed arguments by AT&T Inc., other
telecom companies and industry trade groups that the Federal
Communications Commission exceeded its authority in approving the
regulations last year.

The FCC was responding to fears that broadband providers might charge more
money for faster delivery of content passing through their networks to
Americans’ computers or mobile devices, or block or slow competitors’
content. Broadband companies denied that they had such plans.

In addition to prohibiting those practices, the court ruling cleared the
way for other uses of the FCC’s expanded authority. The agency has
proposed limits on how Internet service providers use the vast and
potentially lucrative trove of information they have about their customers
and possible restrictions on so-called zero-rating plans that exempt some
streaming content from wireless data caps.

But the legal fight isn’t over yet for an issue that began more than a
decade ago as the Internet’s role in American culture, communications and
commerce rapidly expanded.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat who pushed the regulations with
Obama’s strong backing, said the court decision was “a victory for
consumers and innovators who deserve unfettered access to the entire Web.”

Consumer advocates and Internet companies such as Netflix and Twitter also
hailed the decision, saying it gave the FCC the ability to prevent
broadband providers from acting as gatekeepers for online content.

“The court has ensured that paid prioritization, blocking, and
discrimination of content has no place in a free and open Internet,” said
Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Assn., a trade group whose
members include Amazon, Google and Snapchat.

Opponents, however, said they weren't ready to give up the fight.

“We have always expected this issue to be decided by the Supreme Court,
and we look forward to participating in that appeal,” AT&T General Counsel
David McAtee said.

Republican lawmakers promised to try to overturn the FCC's actions with
legislation, which could be successful if they make gains in November’s
election and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins
the White House.

“Rather than providing Internet users and companies alike with the
regulatory certainty they need to thrive, we instead now have a highly
political agency micromanaging the Internet ecosystem,” Sen. John Thune
(R-S.D.) said.

Fears began rising around 2006 that broadband providers such as AT&T,
Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications would sell fast lanes for some
data, or slow content such as video streams that competed with their own
services.

The FCC twice established net neutrality rules but federal judges tossed
them out after legal challenges by telecom companies.

So last year, the FCC took the controversial step of classifying high-
speed Internet as a telecommunications service under Title 2 of the
federal Communications Act.. The move subjected broadband to the same
utility-like oversight as conventional phone services, giving the agency
more enforcement authority.

The FCC’s Democratic majority approved the rules on a 3-2 vote last year
after Obama took the unusual step of publicly urging the independent
agency to adopt the strongest possible regulations.

Both Republican commissioners voted against the rules.

Wheeler promised a light-handed approach, and the rules exempted broadband
providers from rate regulation and other more onerous provisions of Title
2 that apply to conventional phone service providers.

But telecom executives and congressional Republicans said the new
regulations would hinder investment in expanding high-speed networks.

Opponents argued in court that the FCC overstepped its authority in
reclassifying high-speed Internet service and also failed to follow proper
procedures in considering the new regulations.

In a 115-page ruling, the court found that the FCC “has statutory
authority to classify broadband as a telecommunications service.” But one
of the judges, Stephen F. Williams, dissented in part of the decision,
which could give net neutrality opponents an opening for a further appeal.

Williams agreed with his colleagues, judges David S. Tatel and Sri
Srinivasan, that the FCC had the authority to enact the rules. But he
argued the FCC was “arbitrary and capricious” in how it made its decision.

“The commission acts like a bicyclist who rides now on the sidewalk, now
the street, as personal convenience dictates,” Williams wrote.


--
His Omnipotence Barack Hussein Obama, declared himself "Pooptator" of all
mentally ill homosexuals and crossdressers, while declaring where they
will defecate.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the seven
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.

Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.

Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.

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