After their recent fiasco in which the FCC took a special interest, Comcast have taken to testing their secret weapon against filesharers and other who attempt to use what Comcast sold them, but meanwhile they still contend that the FCC are powerless to penalise them for their past unfair actions.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=84689With Comcast continuing to argue that the Federal Communications Commission has no authority to enforce net neutrality principles, advocacy group Free Press is making another push to persuade the agency to take action.
"Comcast is not above the law," Free Press stated in a 112-page submission to the FCC late last week. The net neutrality organization contends that the FCC is authorized to fine Comcast or enjoin it from violating net neutrality principles. "If the Commission lacked jurisdiction over Internet access ... the Commission would lack jurisdiction over the most important communications medium of our time."
The cable company recently said it will develop a protocol-neutral method of managing traffic, but meanwhile has raised the technical legal argument that FCC cannot enforce its 2005 policy statement, which is neither a law or a regulation.
That argument threatens to take the matter out of the FCC's hands. But it also could be explosive politically, because opponents of net neutrality laws have argued that no new legislation is necessary because the FCC already has the authority to enforce the concept.
This is likely to be a shot in the foot for Comcast, if they correct the FCC will demand new sweeping powers to control the ISP companies, if they are wrong many more suits could flow in for their previous actions that singled out p2p users regardless of bandwidth used, a case of "heads I lose, tails you win".
