A Republican-led House subcommittee voted 15-8 to invalidate the FCC’s net neutrality rules. The rules will likely stay in place, however, as the bill has to get through the full House (which it likely will), then through the Senate, then signed by the President. Even if the Senate miraculously passes it, the President is highly unlikely to sign it. “If the FCC was truly weighing the costs and benefits of its actions, the agency would not be attempting to regulate the Internet,” Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said. The other side of the fence has companies like Google and Netflix…

For some time now, net neutrality has been a ’cause celebre’ for web geeks. The idea – that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally, regardless of source, content or intent – is one that’s pretty compelling. It speaks to the democratic ideals of the web as a place where anyone can get their message out as long as they have access to a computer. Yet, lately, a couple of statistics have arisen that might threaten to throw a wrench into plans for enshrining net neutrality into law. First is that during prime time, Netflix consumes up to 20% of all bandwidth. Second is that, during that usage,…

Net Neutrality – the idea that all internet traffic should be treated equally regardless of source or purpose – is, to put it mildly, a hotly debated topic. There is a huge variety of arguments on both sides of the fence, many of them both compelling and complex – and in light of the recent agreement between Google and Verizon, many have been revisiting the debate. At stake is an essential question: whether or not the growth and development of the internet should be something regulated by government or guided by free enterprise. But also at stake in the debate is whether or not the internet will be a new…

Plenty of people are up in arms about Google and Verizon’s Legislative Framework Proposal, but on Friday the company faced a very public response to the issue. Essentially the two companies suggest that the internet could be viewed differently depending upon whether one is using a broadband internet connection from home or work or via a mobile device on a 3G or 4G network. Bloggers and online news sources have attacked Google for this, claiming that they benefited from an open internet that they are now trying to section off. A small group of protesters gathered outside Google headquarters to…