FCC Approves Watered-Down Internet Transmission Rules

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The FCC today passed a new set of rules regulating the Internet that don't seem to please many people.

The issue of "Net Neutrality" is complex, having to do whether broadband providers can play favorites with content, and whether the FCC has the authority to even make these rules.

In a party line vote (three Democratic commissioners voting yes, two Republicans voting no), the FCC is now prohibiting broadband companies from giving preferential treatment to certain web sites and certain types of data.

Ken Blackney, vice president of technology at Drexel University, says the fear by activists who decry the regulations as weak is that a ISP might strike a deal with, say, Hulu.

"You can use Netflix, but it's going to be unbearably slow and you won't want to use it," Blackney extrapolates from that example.  "And the Net Neutrality proponents are saying we have to make sure that the companies who stand to make a dollar in this don't make that dollar by disadvantaging consumers."

Opponents also say government involvement may stifle innovation and investment in expanding broadband.  Republicans, crying regulatory overreach, are vowing to try to block the regulations either in Congress or the courts.

Blackney expects the political backlash and lawsuits will eventually weaken these rules into what he calls "lip service."

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060.