Associated Press | A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the
Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require
broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic
flowing over their networks.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a
big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company. It
had challenged the FCC’s authority to impose so-called “net neutrality”
obligations on broadband providers.
The ruling also marks a serious setback for the FCC, which is trying to officially set net neutrality regulations. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski argues that such rules are needed to prevent phone and cable companies from using their control over Internet access to favor some online content and services over others.
The decision also has serious implications for the massive national broadband plan released by the FCC last month. The FCC needs clear authority to regulate broadband in order to push ahead with some its key recommendations, including a proposal to expand broadband by tapping the federal fund that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural communities.
The court case centered on Comcast’s challenge of a 2008 FCC order banning the company from blocking its broadband subscribers from using an online file-sharing technology known as BitTorrent. The commission, at the time headed by Republican Kevin Martin, based its order on a set of net-neutrality principles it adopted in 2005 to prevent broadband providers from becoming online gatekeepers. Those principles have guided the FCC’s enforcement of communications laws on a case-by-case basis, and now Genachowski is trying to formalize those rules.
The Appeals Court ruled that the FCC does NOT have the authority to regulate network traffic?
I can’t wait for the The Supremes to get this case.
No the FCC does not have the right to regulate the internet.. if they get that right which one will the FCC go after next? the FCC already has to much AUTHORITY.. and needs to be curbed.. We need LESS interference not more..
That’s right. The courts will now always fall on the side of business. Independent voter is wrong. We need MORE control over corporations and LESS control over individuals. We don’t need corporations feeding us anymore destructive garbage than they already do.
Network neutrality is: if you buy 6mbit service from AT&T or Comcast, they cannot go to Google (or anyone else) and say “you pay us 100 million dollars a year, or we will throttle our customers to 1mbit service to you, and make you look bad”. Anyone who tells you there is any political or ideological component to network neutrality is lying to you.
Network neutrality is about curbing fraudulent bait and switch tactics by those who are not subject to Free Market forces. If we actually had a Free Market in this country, network neutrality wouldn’t be necessary since it would be a feature provided by the free market.
This suit was ridiculous. The court made the obvious ruling. Only a moron, like an Obama, would take the socialist position that a company couldn’t provide a level of service commensurate with its cost and with the price. Obama would rather destroy the Internet. He sure as hell doesn’t want anyone with a brain discussing his policies.
This ruling is scary indeed for a number of reasons. The first and clearest reason is that cable providers are limited in a given area. If Comcast serves your town, thats it; you cannot dial up a new cable operator. You could switch to DSL or use a mobile phone 3G/4G service but they may decide to promote their movies over other traffic as well. It is more of an issue with cable because that pipe runs down the street and many homes share the bandwidth.
What you use the wires for is your business and if you paid for 6 MB/s that better be available. When a business ties preferred content to their carrier business, we are in for some real overtones of managed communications.
We already have Comcast or Xfinity that controls network, voice over IP, Internet, Cable TV. So, even if you pay for 6 MPS, Comcast decides what is comprising that 6 MPS, not the marketplace. And as they have proven time-after-time, if they can place more drops on a broadband cable can suppport, oh well, the subscriber has to yell and holler to get someone out to dial back up the stream that went way down due to overload. You can only abuse the rules of Broadband networks so long and then they become unstable. Add on top of that that they have the “right” to throttle you back if you are “overusing” the network. The only agency empowered to deal with communications requirements / quality / fairness IS the Federal Communications Commission. NOT THE COURTS!
BTW, not everything is an Obama conspiracy to socialize the US. True net neutrality hasn’t existed since the DOD is no longer in charge of the internet.
Now big corporations can promote political candidates. Now they can decide whose websites get seen–and whose don’t. Now they can tell you which search engine you can use. Now we can all dance to their tune–and still pay exorbitant rates for broadband unlike anywhere else in the industrialized world.
I run a one-person company, but I’m sure the Comcasts of this world will look out for me when they rewrite all of the rules of the Internet since I don’t have the money to hire lobbyists–lol. Meanwhile, my business may have to struggle to stay alive while the CEOs of Comcast and their ilk will get bazillion-dollar bonuses for coming up with a new way to tie my hands.
Like Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical I get, it’s hard to keep up.”
Sad that so many people here JUST DON’T GET IT. Comcast was acting like China was toward Google. This ruling does NOTHING to protect American people to being subject to the whims of yet another corporate master. Another pro-corporation, anti0-liberty decision by a disingenuous court.
Ken, you especially might want to get a clue what you’re talking about before going on some stupid, irrelevant rant. This law was passed under BUSH, genius. You partisan clowns are really THE problem with politics in this nation. You should sit on the sidelines and let the decisions be made by those who know what’s going on and aren’t blinded by some fanatical agenda as you are.
Maybe Comcast can take Google’s place on China since in essence, Comcast was censoring the content available to their customers.
All you clowns cheering this decision either lack the capacity to understand Net Neutrality and the ruling, or you’re just pathetic slaves who tell yourselves that you’re “free” while selling yourselves on the installment plan to the highest bidder. You slaves kill me with your ignorance. I guess some people, like Ken, are perfectly fine with your freedoms being limited by corporations.
I’m glad I dumped Comcast and their terrible service over a year and a half ago. Now, through the order of the court, they can make their product even more substandard than it was.
COMCAST PROMOTES CENSORSHIP. The same goes for the Court of Appeals and anyone who supports this decision. If you want censored Internet, move to China … or buy Comcast.
Once again the “just say no” Republicans and the tea party or better yet, the kool-aid party mentality misses the point entirely. Net neutrality is pure free market. The FCC would oversee this and make sure that the free market is enforced. Instead, we have to read these re tar ded ill informed comments about Obama and socialism again and again.
TV series and stuff aint my bag Gamecube and classic game torrents is king! The best one is http://www.games-iso.com if you are found of games that is.