Comcast's idea of network management amounts to unauthorized network manipulation, says the head of the Federal Communications Commission, who will recommend that the service provider be punished for throttling peer-to-peer traffic.
"The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers access to the Internet," the commission chairman, Kevin J. Martin, told The Associated Press late Thursday. "We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles."
New York Times writer Vindu Goel notes that this apparent victory for 'Net neutrality advocates could come at a price: "Mr. Martin's proposed ruling in favor of openness could actually end up hurting Internet users if it accelerates the nascent moves by the industry to charge customers based on how much data they use instead of offering essentially unlimited data for a flat fee."
(Update: Now it seems as though by punishment Martin meant a stern talking to or perhaps a timeout; definitely not a fine or anything of that nature.)
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Comcast abused their power and the trust of Internet users.
When Comcast bought up large systems to become the largest Cable MSO, it did not buy the Internet. Comcast has no right to change how the Internet works -- not one byte of it.
How the world-wide Internet works is defined by all of us, through our participation and trust in the Internet Society and the Internet Engineering Task Force. To ensure interoperability and access for all, changes must be carefully deliberated and standardized there. The responsibility of operating the Internet in accordance with those standards is entrusted to companies providing access to it. It's not Comcast's job to change how the Internet works nor can it decide who or what gets preference upon it.
I haven't seen anything other than the press reports about something to be circulated around the FCC. I am hopeful that when the details are released that it serves to preserve and protect the Internet from those who would abuse their power and change it.
Comcast had several chances to come clean and to do right. It's important now that the FCC set this precedent to keep further abuses of power in check.
Comcast loses
Notwithstanding the "black is white" logic of Goel, Comcast has lost. They will not be fined, but that's okay because that's not what we wanted. We want them to change their ways, and according to the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/technology/12comcast.html) they will have to.
As for the non-unlimited pricing, that's not an issue. I don't care if Comcast charges $5/byte, as long as they don't try to control what I use that byte for (course, I might move over to Verizon...) The "plans" (unlimited, progressive, per/byte, whatever) issue is not part of Net Neutrality, and can be decided through competition.