So the federal appeals court on Tuesday, is ruling on the side of big business over the free market: ut –oh! In the case of Comcast v F.C.C the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ruled that so called “net neutrality” is not something the F.C.C can dictate. Back in 2008 Comcast started to slow down or “throttle” as they called it connection speed to customers using the popular BitTorrent service which allows users to download movies and music. The FCC stated that Comcast was discriminating internet usage and they created new broader rules which required equal treatment of all traffic. The court rules in favor of Comcast, stating that the FCC did not have the authority to make such rules.

Ben Scott, the policy director for Free Press stated” This decision destroys the F.C.C.’s authority to build broadband policy on the legal theory established by the Bush Administration,”

So… What’s that mean for us (I’m a Comcast user) – It means that ISPs now have even more control. Comcast could at anytime make a pyramid of net users, each with a different price, you like watching HULU? You might be paying more- god forbid you read a book over at Gutenberg.org – that free book just cost you money. With the highly intensive applications hitting the net; what’s a lowly consumer to do? In terms of economics, Comcast is thinking about the bottom line, what they are NOT thinking about is the consequence. Some enterprising company will make out due to this and start offering an “unlimited” plan for internet, then throw in a price war and ISPs are the new cell phone industry.

In somewhat positive news, Google and Microsoft are outraged, two giants I wouldn’t want to wake up, they claim that this action is limiting innovation. With Comcast being one of the biggest media companies around, it should be an interesting battle. Whatever the outcome, I just hope I don’t have to start searching for those free AOL cd’s to keep writing here.

You've Been Screwed!