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Comcast v. FCC: A Look at Net Neutrality |
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The battle for net neutrality between the Federal Communications Commission and Comcast Inc. may be coming to a head, and not in the favor of the former. Judges in the US Court of Appeals, where a heated trial has been raging over the issue, doubt the FCC’s authority to impose sanctions on Comcast for discriminating against peer-to-peer (p2p) downloading traffic on their networks.
Net neutrality has become a hot-button issue in the technology world, but few people outside the industry or culture understand its meaning. At its core, net neutrality is a somewhat anarchic system that is defined by a lack of restrictions regarding internet sites, content, equipment or modes of communication. Essentially, this means that if the internet connection is legally obtained and reasonably utilized—i.e., behavior that doesn’t affect the quality of service for other users—by a given customer, there should be no censorship or penalties imposed on them.
The FCC defined net neutrality more broadly in 2005, coming up with four principles—dubbed the “Four Freedoms”—to be applied on an individual basis:
1. Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
2. Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
3. Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.
4. Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.
The trouble that the FCC has with Comcast comes from the first and second principles, as Comcast has routinely been limiting the bandwidth of users who run peer-to-peer downloading programs such as Bit Torrent and LimeWire. By limiting the connections of such users, Comcast is subsequently disallowing complete freedom regarding these two principles.
Comcast, however, has naturally taken issue with the FCC’s sanctions. Most of the trouble comes from the fact that the FCC has no legal power to apply such principles on the federal level against Comcast, and as the company has every legal right to challenge the FCC’s authority. As such, Comcast maintains that they are able to limit access to internet bandwidth, content, and so on in order to uphold the integrity of their networks. The US Court of Appeals panel of judges seems to agree with this assertion.
Comcast, no doubt, makes a legitimate legal point, and there can be little doubt as to whether or not the Court of Appeals will rule in the company’s favor. However, this doesn’t mean that the net neutrality issue is dead.
The FCC’s Four Freedoms, while in existence, are merely representative of a larger set of values regarding the issue: they are in no way government sanctioned laws. There are currently no actual rules regarding the issue. Even if there were formal laws, whether or not the FCC is the organization to uphold those laws brings up a whole new set of concerns.
Such issues regarding this highly misunderstood issue underscore the fact that the United States, as a technologically advanced society, must legally establish a formal set of laws regarding net neutrality in order to uphold the freedoms of its internet users and to avoid similar lawsuits in the future.
The internet is, no doubt, one of the most democratizing inventions in the history of mankind: it connects users to an essentially limitless database of entertainment, commerce opportunities, and—most importantly—knowledge. There is nothing that one can’t find on the internet, for good or ill. It thrives as the one of the longest self-governing societies that the world has ever seen. It has irrevocably changed the world as we as Americans in the 21st century know it.
As such, limiting the access that users have to the greatest repository of information in the history of the world should be viewed as a grave mistake. The main problem with limiting internet usage and content comes from the old “Where will it end?” argument.
If a company such as Comcast is able to lower or block the bandwidth of a user downloading a file via a p2p program, what is to stop them from doing the same for visiting certain websites, or possibly censoring those websites altogether? Will every service provider be able to decide what is unacceptable on their networks?
Naturally, these questions are exaggerated in order to make a point. By lacking a set of laws regarding net neutrality, the US will allow internet service providers to create a fractured internet landscape that withholds information from some users while granting it to others, thereby creating somewhat of a class system in an otherwise class-free digital world. This would no doubt degrade the power and importance of the internet, an aspect that should be utterly horrifying to anyone who uses the internet on an everyday basis.
What is at stake in the net neutrality battle is the right to information, and that means any sort of information that a user desires. The internet has abided the desire of its users since it was created, and by censoring any amount of information published on the internet, that noble tradition will be tarnished.
The US must not allow any corporation to limit the revolutionary effect that the internet has had on society, and the best way to do that is to establish net neutrality laws that allow users to access any kind of legal information through any legal connection with any legal device.
The FCC’s loss to Comcast in the Court of Appeals just may be the catalyst behind that much needed change.
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