Nevertheless, it's crucial that the FCC strip down the common carrier rules to make sure they go no further than preserving neutrality in the last mile.
She wishes to make it plain that under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, from which the FCC derives much authority, "information services" are explicitly excluded from common carrier regulation like the 2015 net neutrality rules.
Government intervention, they suggest, would discourage them from making those investments.That might be persuasive if the full weight of America's common-carrier rules as they apply to the telephone business, with all the micro-management they involve, were dumped on the cable industry.
"The agency's decision to reclassify Internet service as a common carrier under Title II... puts the rules on a solid legal foundation," she said in a statement.
The Maryland Public Service Commission recently ruled that Uber is a "common carrier" and should be subject to greater regulation.
"AT&T seems resigned to the near-certainty that the Federal Communications Commission will reclassify broadband as a common carrier service in order to enforce net neutrality rules.
Wheeler proposed strong rules in February 2015 — rules that required reclassifying internet service providers as a "common carrier" under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act — and the FCC was flooded with public comments supporting the decision.
Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order.The court left intact only the requirement for transparency.
If the court had ruled that the authority was not a common carrier, Mr. Greene would have been limited to help under the state's workers' compensation system and would not have been allowed to sue the M.T.A. for negligence under state law.
There seems to be considerable latitude for interpretation (aka confusion) as to whether 2nd Life is a common carrier or a content hoster, and if its is covered by WIPO "safe harbour" rules – and if so, under which country's rules.
