NEWS: FCC overstepped its authority with Comcast

You may recall that the FCC disciplined Comcast for its action against BitTorrent users. But now the DC Court of Circuit Appeals overturned the ruling, stating that the FCC has no jurisdiction to enforce net neutrality under its claimed ‘ancillary jurisdiction’. This is bitter-sweet for the EFF:

If “ancillary jurisdiction” is enough for net neutrality regulations (something we might like) today, it could just as easily be invoked tomorrow for any other Internet regulation that the FCC dreams up (including things we won’t like). For example, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision a future FCC “Internet Decency Statement.” After all, outgoing FCC Chairman Martin was a crusader against “indecency” on the airwaves and it was the FCC that punished Pacifica radio for playing George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” monologue, something you can easily find on the Internet. And it’s also too easy to imagine an FCC “Internet Lawful Use Policy,” created at the behest of the same entertainment lobby that has long been pressing the FCC to impose DRM on TV and radio, with ISPs required or encouraged to filter or otherwise monitor their users to ensure compliance. After all, it was only thanks to a jurisdictional challenge … that we defeated the FCC’s “broadcast flag” mandate which would have given Hollywood and federal bureaucrats veto power over innovative devices and legitimate uses of recorded TV programming.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/court-rejects-fcc-authority-over-internet