On Thursday, May 15, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched a 4 month rulemaking asking for "public comment on how best to protect and promote an open Internet." For months, regulators, consumer advocates, and service providers have wrestled over what the next steps should be after a court decision that threw out the FCC's previous open internet rules, adopted in 2010.
Here's the FCC's news release and here's the 180+ page Notice of Public Rulemaking.
The first comments are due by July 15, 2014, and reply comments are due September 10, 2014. In particular, the FCC is asking about whether pay-to-play arrangements, where certain content providers can pay for prioritized, "fast lane" access to users should be permitted.
New Media Rights took part in the net neutrality proceedings back in 2009-2010, and we will be involved in this proceeding as well. We plan to submit comments, as well as work to encourage positive recommendations through our role on the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee.
We've provided legal assistance to thousands of internet users, bloggers, video creators, remix artists, nonprofits, and innovators like you who rely on the open internet to share their creativity and innovative ideas with the world.
Now its your turn to share your ideas with the FCC. How we can promote and protect this vital resource for years to come?
There's some options for how to participate in the upcoming 4 month long proceeding. We'll share 2 services below where you can directly submit your thoughts to the FCC. Or, if you have ideas that you would like to share with New Media Rights for consideration for inclusion in our own comments, send your thoughts to support@newmediarights.org.
Here our the tools that our friends at the EFF and Free Press have built for you to submit direct comments to the FCC.
Free Press's "Stop the FCC from Breaking the Internet"
Value legal services for internet users and creators? Support them. 
