A U.S. appeals court sided with Comcast in a lawsuit over the Internet service provider's treatment of peer-to-peer file sharing.
In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Federal Communications Commission isn't allowed to make Comcast treat all Internet traffic equally.
Comcast faced a class-action lawsuit in 2007 over claims that it was throttling users of peer-to-peer networks. The basis of the claim was that Comcast promised unfettered Internet access, and the fastest service, but didn't deliver to users who were taking advantage of those claims with P2P transfers.
Comcast ended up settling the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $16 million to customers -- no more than $16 for each subscriber -- but then the FCC also ordered the service provider to change its policies in accordance with network neutrality principles. The appeals court said the FCC doesn't have the power to make such demands.
Advocates of net neutrality -- basically, the idea that all Internet traffic is given equal treatment -- worry that the ruling will be a major setback for the FCC, which wants firmer rules instead of the loosely-enforced principles that exist now. Gigi Sohn, president and founder of Public Knowledge, worried that Comcast or other services providers could block competing online video sites, such as Hulu (a move Comcast says it won't do if it acquires NBC), according to the Washington Post.
Comcast insists that the ruling won't harm consumers. To its credit, the service provider did stop throttling peer-to-peer traffic in 2008, introducing a traffic management system that slows down heavy uploaders and downloaders in congested conditions, but doesn't inspect packets to discriminate against specific uses.
Still, the fact that Comcast initially lied about whether it was throttling P2P users makes me wary of any claim that there's nothing wrong with the current system. The government should continue to pursue net neutrality rules, but now it seems Congress will have to play a bigger role, though past efforts on this front have failed. The FCC has yet to say how it will respond to the appeals court's decision.
