A U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the U.S. Federal Communication Commission did not have authority to stop Comcast from blocking peer-to-peer traffic on its broadband network.
In a 3 to 0 vote, the court overturned the FCC’s 2008 order that forced Comcast to abandon network management processes targeted at BitTorrent and P-to-P users.
The FCC lacked “any statutorily mandated responsibility” to enforce network neutrality rules, wrote Judge David Tatel.
The court’s decision marks a setback fro the FCC and may hinder the progress of the National Broadband Plan.
“Today’s court decision means that nobody has the authority to stop the nation’s broadband providers from interfering with consumers’ online activities,” said Robb Topolski, chief technologist for the Open Technology Initiative in a statement. “Comcast can block customers access to applications; Windstream can redirect your Google searches to its own search engine; Verizon can change the behavior of DNS and change which Web pages you can see; AT&T can censor streaming media and block free speech; and Charter can invade your privacy for the purposes of advertising.
The case evolved from several incidents in 2007 when some Comcast customers were blocked from sharing some files on the Internet. Comcast claimed that to much bandwidth capacity was used and slowed down the network for other customers.
In a 3 to 0 vote, the court overturned the FCC’s 2008 order that forced Comcast to abandon network management processes targeted at BitTorrent and P-to-P users.
The FCC lacked “any statutorily mandated responsibility” to enforce network neutrality rules, wrote Judge David Tatel.
The court’s decision marks a setback fro the FCC and may hinder the progress of the National Broadband Plan.
“Today’s court decision means that nobody has the authority to stop the nation’s broadband providers from interfering with consumers’ online activities,” said Robb Topolski, chief technologist for the Open Technology Initiative in a statement. “Comcast can block customers access to applications; Windstream can redirect your Google searches to its own search engine; Verizon can change the behavior of DNS and change which Web pages you can see; AT&T can censor streaming media and block free speech; and Charter can invade your privacy for the purposes of advertising.
The case evolved from several incidents in 2007 when some Comcast customers were blocked from sharing some files on the Internet. Comcast claimed that to much bandwidth capacity was used and slowed down the network for other customers.
