petition_57e5864c92fc61474659916

The Obama administration has refused to be transparent in all things. The FCC is no exception.

The following can be attributed to a StandUnited petition put forth by Digital Liberty Executive Director, Katie McAuliffe:

It doesn’t take a genius to see what the FCC is doing.  It is piling up obstacles to private investment in private networks, putting us on a glidepath to a taxpayer-funded and government-owned telecommunications and Internet structure that looks like a cross between a Yugoslavian car factory and a Soviet-era milk distribution scheme. 

Concerns about what the new proposal might entail present a harrowing picture for the future of television in American. Larry Downes, of Forbes, postulated that this could be the end of the “Second Golden Age” of TV.

It is widely suspected that the plan, if it goes beyond the failed first proposal, would erode copyright protections for content providers, and would harm then integrity of contracts in the industry. This violation of contracts between content providers and device manufacturers would have a ripple effect throughout the economy, and end up harming consumers as well.

Another frightening thought is that this plan will result in the FCC itself becoming the sole TV programmer in the nation, severely limiting consumer choice.

The reasoning for all of the speculation, is that the FCC has refused to release the plan to the public for comment and honest deliberation. Now that the vote on the proposal has been delayed, the time has come to demand the FCC be transparent on its proposal and get out of our TV.