The Writers Guild of America East is urging
members to e-mail the administration to ask them to support "real"
network neutrality.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the sunshine
period before the FCC's planned Dec. 21 vote on net network neutrality rules,
which means the end of the comment period on the item. WGAE urged members
last week to e-mail the commission and says hundreds did.
So, WGAE President Michael Winship
Wednesday asked members to turn their attention to the White House and send the
president an e-mail
asking him to support network neutrality, which was one of his campaign planks.
By network neutrality, WGAE means not
permitting paid prioritization and applying the regs to wireless as well
as wired broadband. The draft order of the compromise proposal circulated by
the chairman does not explicitly ban so-called specialized services that
could get pay-for priority, according to sources who have seen the original
draft, or apply most of them to wireless broadband.
"If these principles are compromised the
result will irrevocably harm the future of the internet and the public
interest," says a sample e-mail that member can sign on to.
At press time, commissioners were still vetting
the draft, which could be recirculated if there are at least three
commissioners in support of any particular edit. Commissioner Michael Copps,
who has concerns about paid prioritization, wireless broadband and whether the
FCC can justify a Title I defense of the new rules in court, has indicated that
some of the language in the initial draft would need changing.
Some industry players, who reluctantly agreed to the compromise deal,
have warned they could take it to court if the language changes too much. That
would include the wireless industry lobby if more regs are applied to their
mobile broadband service beyond the transparency and no-web site-blocking
provisions in the draft.
