User Submitted Blog Post: Wednesday FCC Wonkfest

There's is so much stuff going on at the Federal Communications Commission this week that I can't throw a stick at it. But I'll try.

Supremes to consider fleeting expletives

The Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' strikedown of FCC fines for  so-called "fleeting expletives." To recap, the Commish smacked Fox TV in 2006 for potty mouthed celebrity comments made during the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards.

Here are the crimes in question:

The 2002 Billboard Music Awards: "People have been telling me I'm on the way out every year, right? So fuck 'em." -Cher

The 2003 Billboard Music Awards: "Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse? It's not so fucking simple." -”Nicole Richie

The FCC insisted that even though these words were said on the fly, they still represented "titillating" and "shocking" language. But New York's Second Circuit Court of Appeals called that stupid. In fact, in June of that year they characterizd the decision as "divorced from reality."

"In recent times," the court observed, "even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced 'sexual or excretory organs or activities' [as the FCC has delicately put it]." The judges pointed out that even the nation's highest officials have used such language without anyone sprouting wood.

The Second cited two examples: President Bush's inadvertently televised remark to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the United Nations needed to "get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit" and Vice President Dick Cheney's "widely-reported 'Fuck yourself' comment to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the U.S. Senate."

FCC Chair Kevin Martin hurled some expletives himself following the Second Circuit's decision.

"I completely disagree with the Court's ruling and am disappointed for American families," Martin explained in a statement published on the FCC's Web site. "I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'shit' and 'fuck' are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience."

So Martin appealed to the Supreme Court, and here we are.

Broadband madness

The FCC reported today that high speed Internet lines in the United States jumped by 55 percent in a twelve month period ending in June 2007, but who cares? The Commission's definition of high speed is a joke: over 200 kilobits per second in one direction (uploads or downloads). "Advanced services lines" is also a gag, defined at over 200 kbps in both directions. Even FCC Chair Martin thinks this is laughable. He appeared at Stanford a couple of weeks ago and called these standards "woefully inadequate" and "not reflective of what the technology is expecting in terms of broadband deployment." Martin told the Stanford audience that he has proposed raising the bar to 768kpbs for basic broadband, and 1.5Mbps for an advanced service connections.

But the Commission did do something nice for apartment dwellers today. It ruled that telcos can't set up exclusive deals with apartment buildings. Last November it did the same with cable service. Now telecommunications service providers can't make tenements contract with one just one telco. "Exclusive contracts have blocked access by consumers to competitive and
popular 'triple-play' offerings of voice, video and broadband," the Commission declared "Opening the door to competitive telecommunications services will help provide consumers with increased access to and choice of such providers."

Plus the Order establishes "regulatory parity between telecommunications and video service providers in the increasingly competitive market for bundled services." I just love it when the FCC uses words like 'regulatory parity.' It makes them sound so tough.

Left coast net neutrality showdown

Oh yeah: the FCC will be holding yet another hearing on what Comcast calls 'network management practices' and what P2P uses call crude blocking of their attempts to share files. The last one took place at Harvard on February 25th and I covered it for Ars Technica. Quite a slug fest. Apparently Comcast paid people from the street to pack the meeting in order to keep folks actually interested in the issue out. That will be a bit more difficult act to pull off at Stanford, I think, where the next gathering will occur. The Palo Alto campus is not exactly the kind of place where you can just walk in off the street. Anyway, April 17th is the day for the big event.

Let's see. Wuddelse? Last point: It should bear mentioning that if the Supreme Court rules on the "fleeting" case this year, it will happen on the 30th anniversary of Pacifica versus FCC, the 5 to 4 decision that launched the agency's indecency rampage. The Supremes have a chance to nip this lunacy in the bud. Let's hope they stay consistent with their pro-corporate stance and side with Fox TV (this is the only time you'll ever read me siding with Fox folks, so savor the moment).