Find: FCC overturns state laws that protect ISPs from local competition

FCC overturns state laws that protect ISPs from local competition
// Ars Technica

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to preempt state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their territories.

The action is a year in the making. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced in February 2014 his intention to override state laws designed to protect private cable companies and telcos from public sector competition. Wheeler took his cue from the federal appeals court ruling that overturned net neutrality rules; tucked away in that decision was one judge's opinion that the FCC has the authority to preempt "state laws that prohibit municipalities from creating their own broadband infrastructure to compete against private companies."

Nineteen states have such laws, often passed at the behest of private Internet service providers that didn't want to face competition. Communities in two of the states asked the FCC to take action. The City of Wilson, North Carolina and the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, Tennessee filed the petitions that led to today's FCC action. Each offers broadband service to residents and received requests for service from people in nearby towns, but they alleged that state laws made it difficult or impossible for them to expand.

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Find: FCC votes for net neutrality, a ban on paid fast lanes, and Title II

FCC votes for net neutrality, a ban on paid fast lanes, and Title II
// Ars Technica

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to enforce net neutrality rules that prevent Internet providers—including cellular carriers—from blocking or throttling traffic or giving priority to Web services in exchange for payment.

The most controversial part of the FCC's decision reclassifies fixed and mobile broadband as a telecommunications service, with providers to be regulated as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. This decision brings Internet service under the same type of regulatory regime faced by wireline telephone service and mobile voice, though the FCC is forbearing from stricter utility-style rules that it could also apply under Title II.

The decision comes after a year of intense public interest, with the FCC receiving four million public comments from companies, trade associations, advocacy groups, and individuals. President Obama weighed in as well, asking the FCC to adopt the rules using Title II as the legal underpinning. The vote was 3-2, with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans against.

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Pointer Events finalized, but Apple’s lack of support still a deal breaker [feedly]

Pointer Events finalized, but Apple’s lack of support still a deal breaker
// Ars Technica

The Pointer Events specification, an API for Web developers to handle touch, mouse, and pen inputs in Web applications, has been published as a Recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium. This is the Web standards group's final, mutually agreed on version of the spec.

Pointer Events was first proposed by Microsoft as an alternative to another specification, Touch Events. Touch Events was born from Apple's initial work to touch-enable Safari on the iPhone. W3C moved to standardize it without Apple's involvement, and at one point during Touch Events' development, it looked as if the spec would be covered by Apple-owned patents, with Apple unwilling to offer a royalty free grant for users of the spec. Had this situation continued, it would have precluded W3C from issuing the spec as a recommendation.

Pointer Events avoided the patent issues. It was also a more general specification; while Touch Events was designed for touch and touch alone, Pointer Events allowed developers to use similar code to handle touch, stylus/pen, and mouse inputs. Pointer Events also addressed certain problems with Touch Events, such as a 300 millisecond delay before responding to taps in order to disambiguate between single and double taps.

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Find: If you like HTTP then you'll love HTTP 2.0

If you like HTTP then you'll love HTTP 2.0
// The Verge - All Posts

Most internet users don't consider the protocols that underpin the web anymore than they do the stitching in their socks, but a major update to HTTP — the protocol that lets browsers download websites from servers — will affect everyone who goes online. After years in development, HTTP/2 has been formally approved. Although it will take many months (and possibly years) before it's used around the web, the update will bring with it a global internet that's more robust, more secure, and faster.

Like cramming multiple bits of paper into a single envelope

Although HTTP/2 has been developed by an industry body (the IETF HTTP Working Group) it's based on a custom version of the protocol created by Google named SPDY (fittingly pronounced...

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Find: The web's inventor rallies Europe in support of net neutrality

The web's inventor rallies Europe in support of net neutrality
// The Verge - All Posts

There's only one person in the world that can begin a blog post with the words "when I invented the Web," and Sir Tim Berners-Lee has done it today in the aid of encouraging the adoption of EU-wide net neutrality rules. "My vision was that anyone, anywhere in the world could share knowledge and ideas without needing to buy a license or ask permission from myself or any CEO, government department or committee," says Berners-Lee. The web was deliberately built as "a neutral, creative and collaborative space," and he wants to see it continue as such.

The European Parliament has proposed a strong set of net neutrality regulations that would prohibit member states and companies operating within them from discriminating between various forms...

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Find: In Net Neutrality Plan, F.C.C. Chief Sees Internet Service Regulated as Public Utility

Boom! Mobile data also net neutral. 

Telling fcc announces at wired. 

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In Net Neutrality Plan, F.C.C. Chief Sees Internet Service Regulated as Public Utility
// NYT > Business

The proposal would create legal authority to ensure that no content is blocked and that the Internet is not divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for Internet and media companies.