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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

U.S. Court Rules Against FCC On Net Neutrality

Ruling is setback for agency's push for national broadband plan

WASHINGTON - 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.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be prepared for changes in levels of service. With this, Comcast can allow someone that pays for one of their sites faster service than going to Hulu which they don't own.....as an example.

Kinda like Verizon does now with their phones - makes subscribers use their VCast instead of the free features that came with the phone.

Anonymous said...

Amen. Let's just hope nothing more gets by this corrupt administration.

I wonder how many people understand the importance of a ruling like this?

Anonymous said...

"...hope nothing more gets by this corrupt administration"

I don't get it. Agree or disagree with the ruling, the intent was to protect consumers. This is a sign of corruption?

Anonymous said...

This is a victory for freedon in this country.
Another attempt by Obama and the rest of the commies in his administration to take over control of various sectors of the economy.
I'm sure he's going to the supreme court with this.

Anonymous said...

12:57

You really need to understand an issue before you go foaming at the mouth about obama. This ruling is the result of a 2008 FCC ruling agaisnt Comcast. Those rulings were based of a set of princples and polcies developed from around 2003 - 2005. Just to make sure you dont get confused, Bush was president then not Obama. Go read about Net Neutrality, you may learn something.

All the government was trying to do was prevent a company that provides a path for the information (ie. Comcast) from limited your access or speed of access based of the content you wanted to consume(ie. Espn.com, SBYnews.com). How would you like it if Joe found some big dirt on local comcast business practices and Comcast decided that going to this site would be super slow or maybe you couldnt get here at all?

Government regulation is not always the answer but heck, I am glad I can eat processed meat without the worry of rat parts being in it.

Anonymous said...

1:45, these commenters don't want facts or factually based debate. According to them, anything that can be perceived as a loss for Obama is worth celebrating.

Anonymous said...

2:13
A loss for Obama is a win for the country and freedom.
Why would Obama want to mess with the cable companies anyway?
To control the content, that's why!

Anonymous said...

1:45, check 5:39. See, told you so.

Anonymous said...

You people have no idea what you're talking about. The ruling says that comcast CAN control your access to the internet if you are their customer. The FCC tried to assert that they could NOT limit or throttle access for users depending on what sites or service they're accessing. Imagine if they decided that Joe Albero's sbynews was critical of Comcast and denied access to sbynews for comcast subscribers. The supreme court ruling today is a step toward saying that Comcast can do that. The FCC tried to protect consumers' rights. The supreme court just screwed us in favor of big business... again.