Wave Net Neutrality Good-Bye

[English Mobster]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10298403

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC's authority to impose such "Net neutrality" obligations on broadband providers.

tl;dr: We're fucked. Essentially the court just said that the FCC has no control over net neutrality, and that ISPs are free to block whatever they like.

[CN3089]

But surely SCOTUS will overtu ahahahahahahaahaha



e: actually I always got the impression that kennedy had a hard on for state power so who knows

[Rook]

The battle over the FCC's legal jurisdiction comes amid a larger policy dispute over the merits of Net neutrality. Backed by Internet companies such as Google Inc. and the online calling service Skype, the FCC says rules are needed to prevent phone and cable companies from prioritizing some traffic or degrading or blocking cheaper Internet calling services or online video sites that compete with their core businesses.

oh look the biggest company ever backs it I think we're ok!!!

[flibitijibibo]

Come on now, Comcast. You didn't need to go through this much trouble. If you didn't want my money, all you had to do was ask. This also explains why you've been giving us the $66/month services for a fraction of that for no reason and refused to make us pay for the whole thing (that's not a joke, I swear it's true). Nothing an e-mail couldn't have done, guys.

[Cojafoji]

Uh. Apparently I should just start posting things in new topics instead (posted this in off topic articles at 12:30)...

Anyway, this is a good thing and a bad thing. ISP's will be free to shunt/limit/throttle certain types of information, however, public pressure has already caused them to change the way they do allocate bandwidth, so we should see public pressure in the future have the same measurable effect. However, if the FCC had been given oversight of broadband providers and govern what they can't block, it would also come with the ability to tell them what they CAN and SHOULD block. Just throwing that out there.

[Dwood]

This will go to the sup ct almost guaranteed.

[Cortexian]

Good thing I'm in Canada and our internets are completely unfiltered and unthrottled!

[ExAm]

All that has to happen here is that Net Neutrality be signed into law by Congress. That's been in the works for ages.

[Phopojijo]

Good thing I'm in Canada and our internets are completely unfiltered and unthrottled!

You're a funny man Freelancer...

[Cortexian]

That was supposed to be partly sarcastic.

But it's mostly true.