Back to the drawing board on 'net neutrality' rules

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has struggled for a decade to find a way to preserve what may be the Internet's most important quality: that there are no gatekeepers between users and the websites they frequent. A federal appeals panel for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the commission's latest set of "net neutrality" rules, saying they violated federal law. There's no easy fix, but the commission should keep trying.

The FCC could answer the court's statutory objections by reversing a pair of rulings it made in the last decade that classified broadband as an information service, not a telecommunication service subject to far more extensive regulation. But such a step could be regulatory overkill, subjecting 21st century services to rules that date back 80 years. New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler noted Monday that the court upheld the commission's authority to impose some rules on broadband providers, and he pledged to keep trying to preserve "a free and open platform for innovation and expression." Broadband providers should join in that effort, or risk devaluing their most valuable product.