STATE CANNOT REGULATE INTERNET CALLS:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota agency may not regulate calls through cyberspace as it does calls through traditional phone lines, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Dec. 22 order by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upholds a lower-court ruling and is a win for fledgling companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., which provides Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission had argued that VoIP companies were providing phone-like service and therefore should be regulated as phone companies are. But those businesses said they provide an information service rather than a telecommunications service.
The Federal Communications Commission last month issued its own rules, saying that Internet phone services should not be governed by the same state regulations as traditional telephone companies.
It is up to Casino City’s lawyer to bring this up on appeal.
It is certainly not in the court’s interest or job description to bring it up, and of course they didn’t acknowledge it. It is the interest of the gambling community to publicize this – and NOT to succumb to the DOJ’s chilling tactics, including the supression of known FCC decisions.
This defeatist attitude is EXACTLY what the DOJ is trying to achieve – the truth be damned! And we are letting them succeed in our own community? I think not!
The truth is that the FCC ruled. that the FCC (federal communications comission) IS the authority governing this, and they say in effect that the wire act is NOT applicable.
This is not an opinion, it is a fact.
One that they would rather no one was aware of so they can continue with their “chilling” of the industry, which means frightening businesses into stopping to work with online casinos.
There are a number of very good steps that have happened lately, and there are forces in the US in individual states now working to get online licencing off the ground.
Such as this one: http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/showthread.php?t=5126