Appeals Court Ruling: Net Neutrality Takes a Hit

Filed in archive News on April 7, 2010

© paltelegraph


A number of sources (Mashable, TechCrunch, PE Hub, Wired) have commented recently on the April 6th Federal Appeals Court ruling on net neutrality. In a nutshell, internet service provider Comcast developed a practice of restricting the bandwidth of customers using BitTorrent for peer-to-peer file sharing. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sought to impose Net neutrality on Comcast and instructed them to stop the practice. The case wound up in court and the Federal Appeals Court in DC ruled on it Tuesday. They ruled against the FCC, saying that the agency did not have the authority to impose Net neutrality on Comcast.

Now everyone (except the internet service providers) is upset.

PE Hub had the most insightful piece on the situation. The court didn't rule that the FCC can never impose Net neutrality. Two things could happen to change the situation. First, Congress could give the FCC that authority. That probably won't happen before the November election; but it could conceivably happen after the election. The second option is to reclassify internet service providers as telecommunication services (not unreasonable given the growth of voice-over-internet-protocols). That step would appear to give the FCC the authority it needs impose Net neutrality. And it would make a lot of people mad.

Eventually, one of those two things is going to happen. In the meantime, the court ruling is a delay in the process.