Article Faults FCC On Handling Of Comcast 'P2P' Complaint

The Federal Communications Commission let the rule of law go by the wayside as it came up with a novel approach to resolving a complaint against Comcast's broadband Internet service. That's the conclusion of Barbara Esbin and Adam Marcus of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. They assert that in its order finding that Comcast's peer-to-peer management practices "unduly interfered" with users' access to the Internet, the FCC effectively "imposed a broad nondiscrimination requirement on all Internet-service providers" by cobbling together at least seven portions of the Communications Act to find ancillary authority. Esbin and Marcus argue that it is likely the court will find the Comcast order "beyond the agency's delegated authority."