FCC Loss = Net Neutrality Victory (CMCSA, T)

The court decision rendered yesterday by a federal appeals court striking down provisions proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding net neutrality is not a blow against net neutrality, as some may claim.

Rather, it is a victory for those who want to keep providers from arbitrarily controlling content on the internet.

How so?

Many people believe that net neutrality means that the internet should be regulated by the FCC in order to prevent providers such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and AT&T (NYSE: T) from imposing tiered subscription services or blocks on access to certain parts of the internet, which threatens to severely curtail freedom of use for the internet and impose burdens on consumers. While these fears are justified - Comcast is notoriously greedy and would clamp down on internet access like Stalin if given the chance - net neutrality is not about regulation.

It is about freedom from regulation - be it from service providers or the FCC.

What this decision does is keep the FCC from getting its hands on the internet - which should be kept as free as it is now. What it does not do is explicitly say that restrictions towards providers can't ever be enacted. In other words, it doesn't given providers a free pass to do whatever they want.

We don't want anyone to have control of the internet - including the FCC. (For more reasons why, check out this article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation from last October that sums up why this is good.) That is why this court decision is a victory for net neutrality. While the FCC may not have jurisdiction over the matter, that doesn't mean that providers have carte blanche to do whatever they like. There are other methods to restricting providers; the FCC shouldn't be our first choice.