WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a sharp blow to the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to set the rules of the road for the Internet, ruling that the agency lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.Not a good decision, but thank Zeus we have Obama in office. "The decision could reinvigorate dormant efforts in Congress to pass a federal law specifically governing net neutrality, a principle generally supported by the Obama Administration."
The decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, specifically concerned the efforts of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, to slow down customers’ access to a service called BitTorrent, which is used to exchange large video files, most often pirated copies of movies.
As with most innovation like radio and TV, the original public band is divided up and auctioned for corporations to exploit. Comcast may want to control the flow of certain sites, but that leads to a dangerous slippery slope. What if Comcast wants a certain election result, they could slow down the traffic of certain politicians' sites according to their agenda. Not a good thing.
"Net neutrality" is what makes the internet so big and innovative and organic. Try to change it purely to make more money for one company is the beginning of the end.
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