This should be a good battle folks.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080318-comcast-fcc-lacks-any-authority-to-act-on-p2p-blocking.htmlThe man who spoke for Comcast at Harvard last month has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls "network management practices" (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking). Comcast Vice President David L. Cohen's latest filing with the Commission claims that regulators can do nothing even if they conclude that Comcast's behavior runs afoul of the FCC's Internet neutrality guidelines.
"The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the Comcast customer experience) to be enormously successful," concludes Cohen's thinly-veiled warning to the FCC, filed on March 11. "Bearing these facts in mind should obviate the need for the Commission to test its legal authority."
Cohen's arguments fall along three main points.
* Congress has not given the FCC authority to act on this matter
* The FCC's Internet Policy Statement does not give the agency the authority to deal with the issue
* Regulating Comcast's ISP policies may violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA)
Its unlikely the FCC will accept any challenge to its authority as this would open up a breach along an ever widening front, Comcast should start to wind its neck back in before another federal agency comes to the FCC's aid and deals it a crippling financial blow for misleading consumers in a premeditated manner.
