Thursday, April 08, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission now must look to Congress if it wants to regulate the Internet and how companies limit customers’ access to the Web. In a 3-0 decision handed down by a Washington appellate court, Comcast won its case against the FCC, which tried to require the cable giant, and other Internet service providers (ISPs), to grant all customers equal access to all content. The justices said the FCC lacked the authority, as part of the agency’s “net neutrality” goals, to tell ISPs how to run their operations.
The decision means ISPs can continue to block or slow specific websites and charge video sites like YouTube to deliver their content faster to users. Also, the ruling left in doubt the Obama administration’s ability to execute a key part of its broadband national strategy, which entailed shifting billions of dollars from a fund for rural phone services to one that helps pay for Internet access in such areas. The FCC may not have the authority to make this switch, based on the appellate ruling
The FCC now will have to get Congress to pass new legislation expanding its powers in order to regulate the Internet. Many Republicans are expected to oppose such a broadening of the FCC’s authority, preferring to let Internet providers dictate the terms of their customers’ use of the Internet.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
U.S. Court Curbs F.C.C. Authority on Web Traffic (by Edward Wyatt, New York Times)
Court Backs Comcast Over FCC on 'Net Neutrality' (by Amy Schatz, Wall Street Journal)
Court: FCC Can't Regulate Internet (by Fred Barbash and Chris Frates, Politico)
Comcast v. FCC (U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia) (pdf)
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