Last year, after Comcast attempted to strangle the bandwidth of BitTorrent users, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that all internet providers must adhere to a policy "net neutrality" (basically, internet providers must provide the same speed to every one to access whatever website their user wants to see. Hear John Hodgman explain it on the Daily Showhere, watch Rocketboom explain it here). This was excellent, because net neutrality is an important principle behind the open internet.Today, a Washington, D.C., court ruled that however excited new FCC commission Julius Genachowski was to regulate net neutrality, that's actually not part of the FCC's purview, so the order against Comcast's policy was meaningless. Who can regulate the internet? Congress. Congress can also tell the FCC to do so, but as of yet, they haven't. So, the seemingly settled net neutrality battle returns to Congress, where it has already generated quite a bit of silliness. We'll be back following this issue with excitement, despite that fact that we don't have Ted Stevens to kick around anymore. Watch him explain the internet"[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNEIf you're still curious about why this matters: This is what your internet bill could look like without net neutrality.
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