美国联邦通信委员会采取新途径推行“网络中立性”

    This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。

    Officials in Washington recently lost a ruling over their power to enforce competition on the Internet. Now the Federal Communications Commission has a new plan.
    华盛顿官员最近在一项裁决中输掉了推行互联网竞争的权限。现在,联邦通信委员会(Federal Communications Commission,简称F.C.C.)有了新方案。

    The F.C.C. currently defines high-speed Internet as an information service. As such, its powers to set rules for broadband service have never been clearly recognized. But telephone service is a recognized area for the agency to regulate. So the F.C.C. proposes to redefine broadband as a telecommunications service.
    目前,联邦通信委员会将高速互联网界定为一项信息服务,按照这一点,它设立宽带服务规则的权限从没有得到明确认可。但是电话服务是该机构被认可的管理范围,因此F.C.C.提议将宽带重新界定为通信服务。

    Congress could give the agency clearer powers over broadband. But F.C.C. Chairman Julius Genachowski calls his plan "a third way."
    国会可能赋予该机构对宽带更清晰的管理权限。但是联邦通信委员会主席朱利叶斯·格纳考斯基(Julius Genachowski)称他的方案为“第三条道路。”

    He says the commission would act narrowly and enforce only parts of existing law. He says the government is not regulating the Internet. The changes are meant to support net neutrality -- the idea that all Web traffic should be treated equally.
    他称,委员会将严格执行的只是现存法律的一部分 。他表示政府不是为了调控互联网,这些改革是为了支持网络中立性--即所有的网络流量应该受到同等对待。

    Last month's ruling by a federal appeals court involved Internet service provider Comcast. The judges ruled that the F.C.C. had no legal basis for an effort to keep Comcast from limiting access to some services over its network. The company said file-sharing users were slowing its traffic.
    上月联邦上诉法院的裁决还涉及互联网服务提供商Comcast。法官裁决,F.C.C.禁止Comcast公司限制其网络上的某些服务没有法律根据。Comcast称文件分享用户拖慢了网速。

    Broadband providers say regulating them would hurt investment. Verizon Communications called the chairman's plan "legally unsupported."
    宽带服务商表示对他们的调控会伤害投资。 Verizon通讯称F.C.C.主席的方案“没有法律依据。”

    As it happens, the plan was announced on May sixth -- the same day as the "flash crash" on American stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly suffered a severe drop.
    碰巧的是,该方案于5月6日宣布 - 和美国股市闪跌(flash crash)是同一天。(这一天)道琼斯工业平均指数一度遭遇暴跌。

    On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced new "circuit breakers" to support orderly trading. The plan involves the Standard and Poor's list of five hundred stocks. Stock exchanges have agreed to temporarily halt trading of any stock that rises or falls ten percent or more within five minutes. The rules will be re-examined in six months and could be expanded.
    周二,美国证券交易委员会宣布了新的“熔断”机制(circuit breaker)以支持有序交易。证券交易所同意,在任何股票涨跌超过10%时暂停交易5分钟。该规则将在6个月后重新评估,并扩大其实施范围。

    And, in another development, the Senate voted Thursday to permit final debate and a vote on a financial reform bill. The House of Representatives has passed its own bill already. The House and Senate versions will need to be combined into final legislation for President Obama to sign into law.
    而在另一方面,参议院周四投票通过了对金融改革议案的最终辩论和投票,众议院版本的议案此前也已获通过。两院各自版本的议案将整合为一个最终法案,由奥巴马签署成为法律。

    The proposed changes in financial rules are the most extensive since the nineteen thirties. The president says the aim is not to punish banks but to protect the larger economy and the American people.
    这次金融体系改革是自上世纪30年代以来最广泛的一次。奥巴马总统表示,改革的目标是保护更大的经济和美国人民,而不是惩罚银行。