For most part, the computer industry has been responsible. Therefore little government regulation was required. Comcast is a repeated exception. Comcast was even caught subverting Skype packets to self serving purposes. Comcast has bought NBC for reasons that include controlling another potential threat to its business - interactive TV. Ongoing is a Comcast lawsuit.
From the Washington Post of 15 Jan 2009:
Quote:
FCC looks at ways to assert authority over Web access
The issue may have reached a turning point last week when a federal appeals court questioned the limits of the FCC's authority in a 2008 case involving Comcast. The agency had ordered the Internet and cable giant to stop blocking subscribers' access to the online file-sharing service BitTorrent. But in an oral hearing last Friday, three judges grilled an FCC lawyer over whether the agency had acted outside the scope of its authority.
The appeals court is still hearing the case, but analysts predict that the FCC will lose and that the ruling could throw all of its efforts to oversee Internet access into question. A loss could undermine the legality of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's push for policies that would prohibit service providers from restricting customers' access to legal Web content -- the concept known as net neutrality -- and throw into doubt the agency's ability to oversee pricing and competition among Internet service providers.
|