Comcast van. Source: Titanas on Flickr. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Ars Technica reports that Comcast has filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission over its ruling against the provider for Comcast’s use of throttling technology.

Almost a year ago, Comcast pledged that it would sue the Federal Communications Commission over its Order sanctioning the cable ISP for peer-to-peer throttling. Now, the company has filed its case with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Although Comcast’s legal arguments are complex, the crux is simple: there were and still are no statutes or credible regulations that support the Commission’s authority to act on this matter, the company says.

“For the FCC to conclude that an entity has acted in violation of federal law and to take enforcement action for such a violation, there must have been ‘law’ to violate,” Comcast’s Opening Brief to the court contends. “Here, no such law existed.”

Well, it certainly took them long enough.

• Ars Technica
• Slashdot

net neutrality... to the power of you - Credit: markrabo on Flickr (CC BY)

Once again Network Neutrality has been brought back to the table in Congress, this is already the third time. But since we now have  a new President and a new FCC chairman it seems more likely that there will be a different outcome this time.

The war over network neutrality has been fought in the last two Congresses, and last week’s introduction of the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009” (PDF) means that legislators will duke it out a third time. Should the bill pass, Internet service providers will not be able to “block, interfere with, discriminate against, impair, or degrade” access to any lawful content from any lawful application or device.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I definitely support net neutrality and I think it’s extremely important but maybe a better approach to insure net neutrality is to increase ISP competition.

• ars technica
• Slashdot

IpTegrity.com reports that the United Kingdom has inserted amendments into the European Union’s Telecoms Package that could allow for filtering.

“NRAs shall promote the interests of the citizens of the European Union by inter alia:
(g) applying the principle that end-users should be able there should be transparency of conditions under which services are provided, including information on the conditions of to access to and/or use of and distribute information or run applications and services, and of any traffic management policies of their choice

The wording “conditions under which services are provided” and “conditions of use” also allude to the principle of conditional access which applies to satellite and cable television. In EU law, it is established in the Conditional Access Directive (Directive 98/84/EC) which concerns protection of copyright on satellite and cable television systems. The subscription television model is alluded to
in the ‘Rationale’ for the amendments:”We are already familiar with this in the broadcasting world, where certain cable or satellite operators may enter into exclusive agreements with content providers (like Sky and Premier League football). Similar arrangements may also exist in the electronic communications world”

I’m not surprised. The UK has a long history of treating its own people with suspicion. I can’t understand how their citizens put up with such blatant violations of their freedom.

• IpTegrity.com
• Slashdot

Ted Stevens (the senator famous for opposing net neutrality because the internet is like a bunch of “tubes”) has been charged with a series of felonies for taking bribes.

Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaskan powerhouse Republican senator, was indicted Tuesday on seven counts of not disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovation work done on his home by a private oil services company.

The alleged free work on his Alaskan vacation home included plumbing.

It’s not clear yet if Stevens’ defense will be that the alleged gifts weren’t a big bribe, they were just a series of tubes.

Welcome to another episode of Free Culture Tabloid.

• Wired