Court: FCC has no power to regulate Net neutrality

**osprey4** · April 6th, 2010, 12:51 PM

Because the FCC "has failed to tie its assertion" of regulatory authority to any actual law enacted by Congress, the agency does not have the authority to regulate an Internet provider's network management practices, wrote Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The FCC over-reaching? What a surprise.

**RicheemxX** · April 6th, 2010, 02:39 PM

The FCC over-reaching yeah but this could be bad news for the consumer. I don't think anyone wants Comcast or any other ISP to have free reign over how they handle the net, at least I know I don't

**thephilosophizer** · April 6th, 2010, 02:45 PM

Yeah I wouldn't call it over reaching if what there are doing is actually protecting free access (as in uncensored, not costless) to the internet.
I for one don't like the precedent, I and really do hope that congress can act quickly to give this authority to the FCC, lest we end up with internet like they have in china, exception controlled by corporations instead of government.

**butch81385** · April 6th, 2010, 02:55 PM

So, I am allowed to charge you for 100Mbps service, but hide in my fine print (or not tell you anywhere for a while) that "certain applications" will be throttled back? Hmm... I'm sorry, but all port 80 traffic gets throttled back by default. Also, as an extra precaution we throttle back internet browsers, online games, etc...

Ugly precedent indeed...

**osprey4** · April 7th, 2010, 07:45 AM

No, Butch, an ugly precedent is when the government tries to enforce a rule that does not exist.

But this author says the FCC will have the last laugh.

Or, ironically, the FCC could reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, treating Internet access companies as it would telephone providers, which would put carriers like Comcast even more under the FCC’s thumb. My bet is on the latter, and if that is the case, Comcast may quickly start kicking itself for every getting into a position where this could happen. And that could be one of the best things for growth of the Internet that could happen.