The Electronic Frontier Foundation might be expected to love the FCC's "Open Internet" push, but the group has one big concern with the rulemaking: the presence of "a loophole for copyright enforcement in its proposed regulations for network neutrality."

The EFF has now submitted a petition to the FCC with 7,000 signatures, asking for the provisions to be stripped from the final rule.

"Before the ink is dry on net neutrality regulations, we already see corporate lobbyists and 'public decency' advocates pushing for loopholes," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. "A loophole like this could swallow network neutrality, with ISPs claiming copyright enforcement as a pretext for all sorts of discriminatory behavior."

At issue is the "reasonable network management" exception to net neutrality. The FCC makes clear that network neutrality rules only apply to "lawful content," and neutrality does not apply to the illegal transmission of copyrighted work.

Despite the EFF's concern, this exception has been in place for years already. In 2005, when the FCC adopted its Internet policy statement, it also made clear that the statement applied only to lawful content. It also included the same exception for "reasonable network management." It is true that big rightsholders have pushed especially hard this time around for broader exceptions; they did get a hearing and a bit of language in the proposed rule, but so far have had no luck trying to get the FCC to "encourage" ISPs to start filtering material.

But the EFF just doesn't see why ISP content filtering should be treated as "network management" at all.

"Because the proposed regulations by their terms do not protect 'unlawful content,' there is no need for an exception to permit ISPs to block such content," says its filing. "Any copyright enforcement exception to the six principles simply serves to excuse ISPs from using undisclosed, overbroad techniques that interfere with lawful activities, as long as they claim they were attempting to restrict unlawful ones."