Comcast v. FCC linkdump

Here are a few notable reactions to the DC Circuit’s Comcast v. FCC ruling last week:
Marvin Ammori, How I Lost the Big One, Bigtime, “I’ll begin with how the decision affects you: it’s really bad news for you and other Americans. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but I’m sure you’ve heard (from multiple news sources). The court decision is a stunning, sweeping defeat for the FCC and for its ability to protect consumers, foster competition and innovation, and preserve the Internet’s role as an engine of free speech and democratic discourse. It means, essentially, that the largest phone and cable companies can secretly block dozens of technologies used by large corporations, nonprofits, and individuals to speak and organize, and the FCC can do nothing to protect us.”
Austin Schlick (FCC General Counsel), Implications of Comcast Decision on National Broadband Plan Implementation, “Does the FCC still have a mission in the Internet area? Absolutely. The nation’s broadband networks represent the indispensable infrastructure for American competitiveness and prospects for future job creation, economic growth, and innovation. The Court did not adopt the view that the Commission lacks authority to protect the openness of the Internet.”
Susan Crawford, The New York Times, An Internet for Everybody, “But the F.C.C. needn’t change either strategy. It can regain its authority to pursue both network neutrality and widespread access to broadband by formally relabeling Internet access services as ‘telecommunications services,’ rather than ‘information services,’ as they are called now. All the commission needs to do is prove it has a good reason.”
Timothy Haw, Wall Street Journal, Why Net Neutrality Ruling Is A ‘Tragedy’ For Small Businesses, “This would be a tragedy for our nation’s future, for Internet service providers to tell you that you can’t use the big lane that goes fast, but the little lane that goes slowly.”
Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge, Comcast Sees The Downside To Winning Their Net Neutrality Case | Public Knowledge, “The hidden story of Comcast’s glorious victory is that if Comcast were smart, it wouldn’t in the first place have brought the case, which challenged the FCC’s authority over the company’s high-speed Internet service. Some in the telecommunications industry, perhaps even huge companies with three letters in its name, urged (begged?) Comcast not to take the FCC’s ruling to court, because of the possibility that Comcast could actually win and, potentially, win big —which is what happened.”
Jim Louderback, GigaOm, Why Net Neutrality Is Too Important to Leave Up to the ISPs “I think the best alternative, however, would be to reclassify ISPs to a Title II common carrier service from a Title I. This would put broadband into the same category as POTS and other telecommunications services. Self-regulation would be bad, and I’m leery about leaving the decision up to Congress in light of how long they can take to make a decision.”
Robert X. Cringley, InfoWorld, Broadband monopolies 1, Net freedom 0: “Why is Net neutrality important? Because in most areas of this country, broadband access still largely depends on regional monopolies or, in best case, duopolies. If you’re lucky, you get a choice between a Monolithic Former Baby Bell or a Big Five Cable Company, both of which want to sell you Internet, voice, video, and maybe also wireless for $100 to $200 a month.”
Mike Masnick, TechDirt, Net Neutrality Battle Quickly Turns Into Political Food Fight: “The whole thing is a bit of a mess — and, once again, distracts from the larger issues (i.e., the lack of real competition in the space). Now, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that both services do, in fact, have common carrier status. The argument is stronger with DSL, which is built on telco infrastructure that, at one point, was built and run through a gov’t-granted monopoly. But, with both, you are dealing with public rights of way, which at least give some legitimacy to the idea that they should fall under a category that involves oversight from the FCC. But, having already flipped the switch one way, going back the other way is not going to be as easy.”
Matthew Lasar, Ars Technica, Don’t blink: Hard-charging FCC turns broadband plan into action: “Federal Communications Commission watchers everywhere, gird thy loins. However frenetic you thought it was in FCC-land back during the media ownership, Comcast P2P, or Sirius XM merger wars, forget it. The Commission has just laid out the road map and schedule for implementing its National Broadband Plan, and it looks pretty relentless—crucial rulemakings lined up back to back through the rest of the year and into 2011.”
David Weinberger, Joho the Blog » Reclassifying broadband: “I was less depressed than I would have expected about yesterday’s ruling that the FCC does not have the authority to tell Comcast to let us do what we want with our Internet. In part, that’s because I was expecting to lose. In part it’s because this battle is far, far from over. There’s the possibility of an appeal (although the 3:0 decision seems pretty definite), Congressional action, or reclassifying the Internet. The third is the most interesting, although it has its own risks.”
Previously: Comcast and the Information Service/Common Carrier Classification