One FCC neutrality elephant: disabilities compliance

Fri Feb 27 20:12:21 UTC 2015

Lamar,

 Two pages? Read the news, man. It's been widely reported that the actual Order runs to over 300 pages!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/26/389259382

You say you haven't read the actual R&O. Nobody in the public sector, or even in Congress AFAIK, has read it. The Order's 300-plus pages were never publicly released or openly debated.This is another "you must pass it to see what's in it" debacle, without the luxury of having any semblance of democratic process or transparency.

I wrote the FCC to ask for a copy of the Order, and here is the response I received:

On Feb 27, 2015, at 11:08 AM, Will Wiquist <Will.Wiquist at fcc.gov<mailto:Will.Wiquist at fcc.gov>>
 wrote:

Good afternoon,

Thank you for writing.  The Order will be released to the public on the FCC website as soon as possible, following final edits, which will likely take a few weeks. The order is then sent to the Federal Register.  This is the typical process for a final rule and order passed by the Commission.  If you are reporting on this, you can attribute that statement to an FCC spokesperson.

Very best regards,
Will

Despite the FCC's "best regards", this is the Obama administration pulling a fast one. They'll release the order months from now after they wait for the public to forget about it.

"If you like your Internet, you can keep your Internet."

On Feb 27, 2015, at 10:52 AM, Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu<mailto:lowen at pari.edu>>
 wrote:

On 02/27/2015 01:06 PM, Mel Beckman wrote:
Section 255 of Title II applies to Internet providers now, as does section 225 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
These regulations are found in 47CFR§6, not 47CFR§8, which is the subject of docket 14-28.

Not having read the actual R&O in docket 14-28, so basing the following statements on the NPRM instead.  Since the NPRM had 47CFR§8 limited to 47CFR§8.11, and the actual amendment going to 47CFR§8.17, the adopted rules are different than originally proposed.  You can read the proposed regulations yourself in FCC 14-61 ( http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7521129942 ) pages 66-67.  Yes, two pages.  The actual regulations are a bit, but not much, longer.

47CFR§6 was already there before docket 14-28 came about.