Net Neutrality News

Court Rules Against F.C.C. in 'Net Neutrality' Case

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

Tuesday's ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation, the nation's largest and most hated cable company. It had challenged the F.C.C.'s authority to impose so called "net neutrality" obligations.

What it means is that a company can do business the way it wants to. What different internet providers worried about was having their info flow turned off for them. That is, a user or provider who uses huge amounts of bandwidth could be denied, and that could kill business.

Google and other big providers wanted the courts to say that the FCC could control the flow and guarantee that everyone has as much bandwidth as they want.

But, instead, the court ruled that a company like Comcast has every right to decide what data it carries.

To further illustrate the ruling, in the case that was before the Court, Comcast had made the business decision that Bit Torrent users were utilizing an undue amount of a limited asset, bandwidth, and in order to protect it’s network and allow the majority of it’s users to be able to do things like check their email without having to worry about the network going down because some 21 year old is using Bit Torrent to download a bootleg copy of Robot Chicken.

Since it’s Comcast’s network, the court has decided that they should have the right to decide how it’s used and to take action to protect it’s property and it’s other customers.

This is a victory for liberty and free speech, I don't understand how any sane person could want to give the FCC more power to regulate the Internet in the first place. But, there will be downsides to this ruling - get ready for a tiered internet bill.