New regulatory battle brewing over ISP classification

A specter is haunting the Internet, the specter of Title II of the Communications Act—the section that regulates telecommunications common carriers and might eventually be used by the FCC to oversee broadband.

"Exactly what kind of companies might get tangled up into this regulatory Rubik's Cube?" worriedly asked FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell during a talk he gave to the Free State Foundation on Friday. "Any Internet company that offers a voice application?" McDowell fretted. "With this newfound authority, why stop at voice apps? Isn't voice just another type of data app? As the distinction between network operators and application providers continues to blur at an eye-popping rate, how will the government be able to keep up?"

Over here at Ars, we're trying to keep up ourselves as the legal war over the FCC's authority to invoke open Internet rules seems poised to take a decisive legal shift—from a debate not just over the agency's authority to regulate the Net, but over whether it can be classified as a common carrier service. Clearly McDowell doesn't like this idea, but arguably it has been forced upon the open Internet movement. Here's why, and a preview of what the debate will look like for the foreseeable future.