The Honorable Ajit Pai, Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

Dear Chairman Pai:

In 2014, more than 200 showrunners and creators of television and online video series sent a letter to your predecessor, Chairman Wheeler, in support of the open Internet. Today we do so again because of the continued importance of strong, legally-enforceable open Internet rules based on Title II of the Communications Act.

The FCC’s 2015 rules were designed to secure a free and open Internet. These rules, which have since been upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court, preserve the Internet as an open communications platform where consumers decide what content and information they wish to access. By instituting rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, paid prioritization and other discriminatory conduct, the FCC has promoted free speech, competition and innovation online.

The benefits of an open Internet are beyond dispute. It has become an essential tool in participatory democracy. It has fostered competition across all sectors of our economy, stimulating the investment of billions of dollars in new content, services and applications. Consumer demand, particularly for online video content, has fueled investment in faster wired and wireless networks.

The open Internet has been critically important for content creators. Decades of media consolidation have resulted in a handful of companies controlling what stories are told on television. By lowering barriers to entry and permitting content to bypass media’s traditional gatekeepers, the open Internet has loosened this stranglehold. There are now new buyers for what we as writers create. In 2017 alone, upwards of 100 original series created and written by Guild members will be released online. For viewers, the result is a new Golden Age of programming.

The open Internet, however, will not continue to thrive without enforceable rules. Already, a handful of Internet service providers (ISPs) dominate the broadband market, often leaving consumers with no choice for high-speed Internet service. Without rules governing their business practices, these ISPs will have the power to stifle the free market in ways that benefit their bottom lines but not the broader economy or society. The threat is hardly hypothetical: prior to the adoption of the 2015 rules, we know that Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and AT&T all degraded Netflix traffic even though their customers had paid to access the content. The likelihood of further anticompetitive behavior has only increased as more consumers choose online video services that compete with the traditional offerings of cable operators. For consumers the result of monopolistic behavior, unrestrained by sensible regulation, will be higher prices and fewer choices.

The 2015 rules provided a common sense and legally viable framework for ensuring an open Internet. We strongly oppose the proposal to reclassify broadband Internet as an information service, which will ultimately doom these regulatory efforts. The Commission made the right decision in 2015, and it must not retreat now.

Sincerely,

Mike Alber
Chris Alberghini
Jesse Alexander
Scott Alexander
David Anaxagoras
KP Anderson
Dave Andron
Nick Antosca
Judd Apatow
Rich Appel
Jim Armogida
Steve Armogida
Scot Armstrong
Michelle Ashford
Jeff Astrof
Neal Baer
Byron Balasco
Rene Balcer
Hunt Baldwin
Carol Barbee
Mike Barker
Alfredo Barrios
Janine Sherman Barrois
John D. Beck
Jeffrey Bell
Dan Berendsen
Amy Berg
Gretchen J. Berg
Ian Biederman
Kenneth Biller
Rachel Bloom
Andy Bobrow
Leslie Bohem
Max Borenstein
Rob Bragin
Chris Brancato
Bradley Bredeweg
Corinne Brinkerhoff
Kristofor Brown
William Broyles
Dan Bucatinsky
Scott Buck
Devin Bunje
Jack Burditt
Jeff Bushell
Trey Callaway
Dana Calvo
Frank Cardea
Erin Cardillo
Glenn Caron
Bridget Carpenter
Patti Carr
Jeremy Carver
Chris Case
Daniel Cerone
Natalie Chaidez
Ilene Chaiken
Andrew Chambliss
Dave Chernin
John Chernin
Mike Chessler
Daniel Chun
Cris Cole
Jonathan Collier
Jill Condon
Adam Conover
John F. Coveny
Carter Covington
Hunter Covington
Charlie Craig
David Cross
Sean E. Crouch
Mark Cullen
Robb Cullen
Alexandra Cunningham
Sean Cunningham
Carlton Cuse
Bob Daily
Jeff Davis
Ed Decter
Robert Doherty
Tom Donaghy
Tim Doyle
James Duff
Sarah Dunn
Evan Dunsky
Jay Duplass
Marc Dworkin
Jay Dyer
Ben Edlund
Kerry Ehrin
Lee Eisenberg
John Eisendrath
Owen Ellickson
Stephen Engel
Dave Erickson
Stephen Falk
Kevin Falls
Michael Feldman
Mark Fergus
Linda Videtti Figueiredo
Mark Fish
Matt Fleckenstein
Jake Fogelnest
Brent Forrester
Emily Fox
Jeff Franklin
Victor Fresco
Anna Fricke
Eric Friedman
Liz Friedman
Diane Frolov
Dan Futterman
Sera Gamble
Michael Gans
Alex Gansa
Eric Garcia
Leila Gerstein
Tim Gibbons
Vince Gilligan
Scott M. Gimple
Sivert Glarum
Mark Goffman
Andrew Goldberg
Ian Goldberg
Jessica Goldberg
Jill Goldsmith
David A. Goodman
Jill Gordon
Peter Gould
David Marshall Grant
David Greenwalt
Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Jonathan Groff
Andrew Gurland
Aaron Guzikowski
Joe Halpin
Don Handfield
Hart Hanson
Aaron Harberts
Steve Harper
Chris Harris
Alexi Hawley
Allan Heinberg
Eileen Heisler
Todd Helbing
Felicia D. Henderson
Joe Henderson
Mark Hentemann
William Blake Herron
Al Higgins
John Hoberg
Chad Hodge
David Hoge
David Holden
Charles Holland
Davey Holmes
Winnie Holzman
Glenn Howerton
David Hudgins
Keith Huff
Soo Hugh
Ted Humphrey
Lauren Iungerich
Sean Jablonski
Michael Jacobs
Kevin Jakubowski
Michael Jamin
Al Jean
Chip Johannessen
Casey Johnson
Dee Johnson
Joanna Johnson
Dave Kajganich
Steven Kane
Michael B. Kaplan
Larry Karaszewski
Jason Katims
Mitchel Katlin
Evan Katz
Todd Katzberg
Marta Kauffman
Richard Keith
Courtney A. Kemp
David Kendall
Chris Keyser
Kyle Killen
Albert Kim
Michelle King
Robert King
Jeffrey Klarik
Philip Klemmer
Erica Shelton Kodish
Jay Kogen
Jenji Kohan
Michael Koman
Dan Kopelman
Terri Kopp
Aaron Korsh
Jim Kouf
James LaRosa
Amanda Lasher
Zander Lehmann
Peter M. Lenkov
Jennifer Levin
Robert Levine
Chris Levinson
Steve Levitan
Kat Likkel
Damon Lindelof
Jonathan Lisco
Rob Lotterstein
Patrick Macmanus
Steven Maeda
David Manson
Corinne Marshall
Bill Martin
Blake Masters
Brett Matthews
Glen Mazzara
Laurie McCarthy
Blake McCormick
Cindy McCreery
Gigi McCreery
Brian McGreevy
Jeff Melvoin
Carol Mendelsohn
Carly Mensch
Erica Messer
Jason Micallef
Joshua John Miller
Rina Mimoun
Dominic Minghella
Bryan Moore
Chris Mundy
Kevin Murphy
Michelle Nader
Margaret Nagle
DJ Nash
Stephen Nathan
Christopher Nowak
Pete Nowalk
Marti Noxon
Peter Ocko
Erik Oleson
Lara Olsen
Mike O'Malley
Jack Orman
Peter Paige
Michael Palleschi
Sallie Patrick
Jim Patterson
Saladin K. Patterson
Craig Pearce
Joe Penhall
Chris Peterson
Michael Petroni
Tony Phelan
Clyde Phillips
Judd Pillot
Jeff Pinkner
Greg Plageman
Julie Plec
Carlos Portugal
Bill Prady
Dawn Prestwich
Matt Pyken
Ben Queen
Jeff Rake
Billy Ray
Josh Reims
Perry Rein
Rock Reuben
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Graham Roland
James Roland
Melissa Rosenberg
Mike Royce
Stacy Rukeyser
Shawn Ryan
David Salzman
Danielle Sanchez-Witzel
Dario Scardapane
Karl Schaefer
Jeff Schaffer
Jeffrey Alan Schechter
Paul Scheer
George Schenck
Mike Schiff
Andrew Schneider
David Schulner
Michael Schur
Heath Seifert
Michael Seitzman
Maria Semple
Naren Shankar
Jonathan Shapiro
Julius Sharpe
Mike Sikowitz
Craig Silverstein
Adam Simon
Joey Slamon
Todd Slavkin
Jason Smilovic
Patrick Sean Smith
Jill Soloway
Holly Sorensen
Tom Spezialy
Jed Spingarn
Nick Stanton
Hank Steinberg
Jon Steinberg
Kathryn Steinberg
John Stephens
Gardner Stern
Jared Stern
Jonathan Stern
Meredith Stiehm
John J. Strauss
Veena Sud
Kurt Sutter
Craig Sweeny
Darren Swimmer
Tom Szentgyorgyi
Beth Szymkowski
Janet Tamaro
Maurissa Tancharoen
Matt Tarses
Nick Thiel
Betsy Thomas
Dustin Thomason
Peter Tolan
Christian Torpe
Tony Tost
Sarah Treem
Ira Ungerleider
Christopher Vane
Pam Veasey
Mark Verheiden
Todd Waldman
Michael Waldron
Moira Walley-Beckett
Patrick Walsh
Selyna Warren
Ben Watkins
Matt Weiner
Paul Weitz
Matt Weitzman
John Wells
Ben Wexler
Emily Whitesell
Vaun Wilmott
David Windsor
Terence Winter
John Wirth
Craig Wright
Brian Yorkey
Nicole Yorkin
Graham Yost
Lon Zimmet
John Zinman
David Zuckerman