INTERNET - Government + Corporate Assault the Open NET

There is a behind-the-scenes assault on what we know as the Internet (NET) today.

"The Great American Firewall: Why the Net is poised to become a global weapon of mass deception" by Elliot D. Chhen, PH.D., SmirkingChimp

Hindsight is often touted as better than foresight, yet such a truism should not blind us to an imminent threat before it happens. Like someone who takes up with an abusive mate and rationalizes the threat to life and limb until the battering leaves undeniable, indelible scars, there are good reasons right now to expect the worst when it comes to the survival of the free Internet. Now unfolding is a legal-political-corporate plot for turning a vibrant, democratic Internet into a global web of corporate and government deceit. The tell-tale signs exist but as in domestic abuse, the perpetrators (federal government and a small group of interconnected, powerful telecom and mainstream media monopolies) have done their utmost to keep it hidden behind closed doors.

Under the veil of a virtual mainstream media blackout, on June 27, 2005, the United States Supreme Court granted giant cable companies like Comcast and Verizon the legal right to dominate and control the Internet. It ruled that broadband Internet was an information service like cable TV rather than an interactive telecommunication service like the telephone (National Cable & Telecommunications Association vs. Brand X Internet Services). This gave these behemoths the green light to exclude Independent Service Providers (ISPs) from using their pipes, thereby laying the foundation for a corporate dominated and controlled Internet. Succinctly, in controlling the conduit of communication across the Internet, these companies now had acquired the legal right to control the content (Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal Ax, And Why Corporate News Censored the Story). Moreover, in writing this decision, the Court also left the door open for telephone companies like ATT to control telephone modem connectivity to the Internet. As a result, just three weeks after the decision was handed down, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seized the opportunity to grant this right, effectively ushering in the beginning of the end of free-access Internet.

The Supreme Court ultimately rested its decision on its own Chevron ruling which held that courts should defer to government agencies, such as the FCC on matters of statutory interpretation so long as the statute in question was ambiguous and the agency’s interpretation was reasonable. Despite the fact that there was unambiguous, prior precedent for considering the Internet to be a telecommunication service rather than an information service (AT&T Corporation vs. Portland); and despite the fact that treating an interactive service such as the Internet like a one-way, cable TV station defied rationality, it still deferred to the FCC, which sought to interpret the Internet as an information service.

Brand X has now set the legal stage for a further maneuver in the dismal saga of the declining free Internet. Now in Congress, under extreme pressure by telecom lobbies, is a pending house bill introduced by Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) entitled the “Communications Opportunity Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006.” This Act includes a “Title II- Enforcement of Broadband Policy Statement” that states the FCC “shall have exclusive authority to adjudicate any complaint alleging a violation of the broadband policy statement or the principles incorporated therein.” With the passage of this provision the FCC would no longer have to rely on Chevron to attain deference. Instead, it would be given a blank check to enforce its own mandates. This would mean that courts would have scant authority to challenge and overturn its decisions.

Unfortunately, the FCC harbors a political bias that makes granting it this authority dangerous. Under the direction of former FCC Chair Michael Powell, and now under its current chair, Kevin Martin, the FCC has moved toward increased deregulation of telecom and media companies, and there is now little reason to expect that this trend will reverse. The consequence is the thickening of the plot to increase corporate control of the Internet.

This is why there have been proposals by phone companies who want to charge by the minute for NET access. When it comes to cable used to connect the WWW (WEB-Server to WEB-Server), the legal definintion "information service" is giving corporate interests unchecked control and raises the specter of corporate and government censorship that the legal definition of "telecommunication service" does not have.

The Internet is the last bastion of totally free (like in freedom) and open access to information that is not in controll by governments or corporations. To not provide the same legal protections as telephone vioice commnuications has, is a threat to free speach and the exchange of information that good citizens need to monitor what their government is doing. There is not one government, including the USA, that has not tried to keep the bad news from the people (at worst) or manipulate information to present only its views (suppressing any other views).