美国互联网新规确认网络中立原则

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility, a milestone in regulating high-speed Internet service into American homes.华盛顿——联邦通信委员会(Federal Communications Commission, FCC)周四投票决定，把宽带互联网作为一种公共事业来管理。这个要求是高速互联网服务转入美国家庭的管理上的一个里程碑。

Tom Wheeler, the commission chairman, said the F.C.C. was using “all the tools in our toolbox to protect innovators and consumers” and preserve the Internet’s role as a “core of free expression and democratic principles.”FCC主席汤姆·惠勒(Tom Wheeler)说道，委员会在用于“工具箱中的所有工具来维护创新者和消费者”，同时也要保证互联网作为“言论自由和民主原则基石”的起到。The new rules, approved 3 to 2 along party lines, are intended 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 that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else. Those prohibitions are hallmarks of the net neutrality concept.新规则是以3票对2票通过的。

投反对票者与投反对票者分别来自两个有所不同的党派。新规目的保证任何内容都不被屏蔽，同时，互联网也会被拆分出有网络及媒体公司可以收费用于的快速路，把较慢路留下其他人。这是网络中立概念的核心原则。Explaining the reason for the regulation, Mr. Wheeler, a Democrat, said that Internet access was “too important to let broadband providers be the ones making the rules.”说明新规则时，民主党人惠勒说道，需要认识和用于互联网“至关重要，因此无法由宽带提供商制订规则”。

Mobile data service for smartphones and tablets, in addition to wired lines, is being placed under the new rules. The order also includes provisions to protect consumer privacy and to ensure that Internet service is available to people with disabilities and in remote areas.除了有线网络，针对智能手机和平板电脑的移动数据服务也将不受新规监管。周四的决议还包括维护消费者隐私的条款，和保证残疾者及偏远地区都能用于互联网的内容。Before the vote, each of the five commissioners spoke and the Republicans delivered a scathing critique of the order as overly broad, vague and unnecessary. Ajit Pai, a Republican commissioner, said the rules were government meddling in a vibrant, competitive market and were likely to deter investment, undermine innovation and ultimately harm consumers.投票前，委员会的五名成员都放了言。

共和党人对规则明确提出了尖锐批评，谴责它过于明确、模棱两可、没适当。共和党委员阿吉特·佩(Ajit Pai)说道，新规意味著政府介入一个活跃、充满著竞争的市场，可能会压制投资，巩固创意，最后损害消费者。“The Internet is not broken,” Mr. Pai said. “There is no problem to solve.”“互联网没出有问题，”佩说，“没什么问题必须解决问题。”The impact of the new rules will hinge partly on details that are not yet known. The rules will not be published for at least a couple of days, and will not take effect for probably at least a couple of months. Lawsuits to challenge the commission’s order are widely expected.新规的影响主要各不相同细节内容；目前尚能不得而知。

这些规则最少要两天后才不会发布，最少两个月后才不会生效。很有可能还不会再次发生诉讼，对新规发动挑战。The F.C.C. is taking this big regulatory step by reclassifying high-speed Internet service as a telecommunications service, instead of an information service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. The Title II classification comes from the phone company era, treating service as a public utility.FCC此次在监管上迈进了一大步，根据《电信法》第二章，把高速互联网服务定义为一种通信服务，而非信息服务。

这条法律中的分类源于电话公司时代，将电话服务归类为公共服务。But the new rules are an à la carte version of Title II, adopting some provisions and shunning others. The F.C.C. will not get involved in pricing decisions or the engineering decisions companies make in managing their networks. Mr. Wheeler, who gave a forceful defense of the rules just ahead of the vote, said the tailored approach was anything but old-style utility regulation. “These are a 21st-century set of rules for a 21st-century industry,” he said.但新规是对第二章的选择性用于，一些条款被接纳，一些则被回避。FCC不插手公司的定价要求和工程设计要求。

惠勒在投票表决前极力为新规申辩，说道这种以定制式的监管方式决不是老式的公共设施法规。“这是21世纪的法规，限于于21世纪的行业，”他说道。Opponents of the new rules, led by cable television and telecommunications companies, say adopting the Title II approach opens the door to bureaucratic interference with business decisions that, if let stand, would reduce incentives to invest and thus raise prices and hurt consumers.新规的反对者还包括有线电视网和通信公司。

他们说道，对第二章的使用打开了政府介入商业决策的大门，如果被继续执行，不会减少投资积极性，造成价格提升，损害消费者。“Today, the F.C.C. took one of the most regulatory steps in its history,” Michael Powell, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and a chairman of the F.C.C. in the Bush administration, said in a statement. “The commission has breathed new life into the decayed telephone regulatory model and applied it to the most dynamic, freewheeling and innovative platform in history.”“今天，FCC迈进了有史以来仅次于的监管步伐，”国家有线电视和电信协会主席、布什总统时代的FCC主席迈克尔·鲍威尔(Michael Powell)在一则声明中说道。“委员会为陈旧的电话监管模式流经了新生命，把它应用于历史上最有活力，最权利，也最不具创意的一个平台上。

”Supporters of the Title II model include many major Internet companies, start-ups and public interest groups. In a statement, Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, which includes Google, Facebook and smaller online companies, called the F.C.C. vote “a welcome step in our effort to create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules.”第二章模式的支持者还包括许多大型互联网公司、初创企业，以及公共利益团体。互联网协会会长迈克尔·贝克曼(Michael Beckerman)在一份声明中称之为，FCC的投票表决为“我们努力创造强有力的、可继续执行的网络中立性规则迈进了尚之信的一步”，互联网协会还包括谷歌、Facebook，以及较小的网络公司。The F.C.C.’s yearlong path to issuing rules to ensure an open Internet precipitated an extraordinary level of political involvement, from grass-roots populism to the White House, for a regulatory ruling. The F.C.C. received four million comments, about a quarter of them generated through a campaign organized by groups including Fight for the Future, an advocacy nonprofit.为了保证一个对外开放的互联网，FCC用了一年的时间来制订规则，惹来从基层民粹主义者到白宫的政治参予，这对制订管理法规来说异乎寻常。

FCC接到了400万份意见，约有四分之一来自一个运动，运动是由“谋求未来”(Fight for the Future)等提倡性非盈利团体的组织的。Evan Greer, campaign director for Fight for the Future, said, “This shows that the Internet has changed the rules of what can be accomplished in Washington.”“谋求未来”的该活动负责人埃文·格里尔(Evan Greer)说道，“这指出，互联网早已转变了华盛顿需要做到什么事情的规则。”An overwhelming majority of the comments supported common-carrier style rules, like those in the order the commission approved on Thursday.绝大多数的意见反对公共通信企业类型的规则，正如委员会周四批准后的那种。

In the public meeting, Mr. Wheeler began his remarks by noting the flood of public comments. “We listened and we learned,” he said.在这个公开发表会议上，惠勒在讲话中首先提及了大量的公众意见。他说道，“我们征询了意见，我们从中学到了东西。”In November, President Obama took the unusual step of urging the F.C.C., an independent agency, to adopt the “strongest possible rules” on net neutrality.去年11月，奥巴马总统不同寻常地向FCC收到敦促，呼吁这个独立国家的机构在网络中立性上采行“尽量最强有力的规则”。Mr. Obama specifically called on the commission to classify high-speed broadband service as a utility under Title II. His rationale: “For most Americans, the Internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life.”奥巴马尤其敦促委员会把高速宽带服务归类为第二章的公用事业。

他的理由是：“对于大多数美国人来说，互联网早已沦为日常交流和日常生活中必不可少的一部分。”Republicans in Congress were slow to react, and initially misread the public mood. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas portrayed the F.C.C. rule-making process as a heavy-handed liberal initiative, “Obamacare for the Internet.”国会中的共和党人反应功能障碍，最初还误解了公众的情绪。

德克萨斯州参议员特德·克鲁兹(Ted Cruz)曾把FCC的规则制订过程叙述为自由主义者笨手笨脚的动作，是“互联网的奥巴马医改”。In January, Senator John Thune, the South Dakota Republican, began circulating legislation that embraced the principles of net neutrality, banning both paid-for priority lanes and the blocking or throttling of any web content. But it would also prohibit the F.C.C. from issuing regulations to achieve those goals. This week, the Republicans pulled back, with too little support to move quickly.今年1月，南达科他州共和党参议员约翰·图恩(John Thune)开始递交一个法规议案，反对网络中立原则，禁令收费优先通路以及封锁或容许任何网页内容的作法。但该法规也将禁令FCC为构建这些目标来制订规则。本周，共和党人因为支持者过于较少、无法较慢推展而退出了这些作法。

Also at the Thursday meeting, the F.C.C. approved an order to pre-empt state laws that limit the build-out of municipal broadband Internet services. The order focuses on laws in two states, North Carolina and Tennessee, but it would create a policy framework for other states. About 20 states, by the F.C.C.’s count, have laws that restrict the activities of community broadband services.也是在周四的会议上，FCC批准后了一条命令，事前禁令了各州容许市政府改建宽带互联网服务的法律。该命令主要针对北卡罗来纳州和田纳西州的法律，但也为其他州创建了一个政策框架。

据FCC统计资料，约20个州有容许社区宽带服务活动的法律。The state laws unfairly restrict municipal competition with cable and telecommunications broadband providers, the F.C.C. said. This order, too, will surely be challenged in court.FCC说道，这些州的法律不公平地容许了市政部门与有线电视和电信宽带服务提供商的竞争。这条命令必将会在法庭上受到挑战。

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