----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message-ID: <20191015001427.GA26254@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2019 00:14:27 +0000
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: FCC Internet Deregulation Survives Court Challenge
By Scott Feira, John P. Elwood and Peter J. Schildkraut
On October 1, 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit largely
upheld the 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order, in which the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) classifies internet access as an
Information Service under Title I of the Communications Act and adopts
a market-based "light touch" policy for governing the internet. The
FCC's 2018 Order was a departure from the FCC's 2015 Open Internet
Order, which had classified internet access as a Telecommunications
Service under Title II of the Communications Act to protect "net
neutrality" and thus potentially opened the way for utility-style
regulation of internet service providers. The case - Mozilla
Corp. v. FCC, No. 18-1051 - was decided in an unsigned per curiam
opinion, probably because multiple judges on the panel wrote parts of
the 186-page opinion.
The court did vacate part of the 2018 Order that would have barred
states from imposing any rule or requirement that the FCC repealed (or
decided to refrain from imposing) in the 2018 Order or that is more
stringent than the 2018 Order. Taking a broad reading of this result,
Judge Stephen F. Williams noted the incongruity in ruling that the FCC
"acted lawfully in rejecting the heavy hand of Title II for the
Internet, but that each of the 50 states is free to impose just that."
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=852416&email_access=on
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
------------------------------
Message-ID: <010B264E-315F-40C5-8AE8-09FBA18A4BAC@roscom.com>
Date: 14 Oct 2019 12:18:00 -0400
From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Cell Service Returns to Kashmir, Allowing First Calls in
Months
After imposing a complete communications blackout two months ago, the
Indian government on Monday partially restored cellphone service in
the Kashmir Valley.
By Samee Yasir
SRINAGAR, Kashmir When the cellphone started to ring, after 71 days of
silence, the crowd erupted into a loud cheer.
The region's cell service had been shut off in the hours before the
Hindu nationalist government of India's prime minister, Narendra Modi
announced on Aug. 5 the revocation of a constitutional provision that
gave partial autonomy to Kashmir.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/business/kashmir-cellphone-service-restored.html
------------------------------
Message-ID: <93C253A6-A9FE-4783-9899-059BB7670550@roscom.com>
Date: 13 Oct 2019 21:04:54 -0400
From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Inexpensive, unpatched phones put billions of users'
privacy at risk
Billions who only connect with cheap Android phones pay with their
personal info.
By Kate Cox
Privacy, it seems, is increasingly a luxury reserved for those who can
afford it. "Free" services are rarely free, and in the 21st century,
the adage seems to be that if you aren't paying with your money,
you're paying with your personal data. But while a user at the higher
ends of the income scale can afford to be choosy with both their cash
and their privacy, users of the cheap, mostly Android-based smart-
phones that dominate the market worldwide are bearing the burden.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/inexpensive-unpatched-phones-put-billions-of-users-privacy-at-risk/^
