Google News Updates

Skype Technologies SA and companies that have pressed for free flow of Internet traffic suffered a setback when a court ruling undermined the government’s role in supervision the Web.

In a decision yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have authority to adjust Internet management practices by Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company.
Backed by companies including Google, FCC officials have pressed for rules that bar network owners such as Comcast and AT&T Inc. from limiting Web traffic. Regulators now will have to intensify efforts to assert control over the Internet, said Christopher Libertelli, director of North America government and regulatory affairs for Skype, a provider of calling via the Web.

“We’re trying to set up a framework so that the government has the tools to mediate should they find conduct that harms consumers,” Libertelli said. The decision puts “the Internet, a critical division of American business, into a no-man’s land.”

Comcast’s victory may intensify argue over the role network owners can play in managing information flow over the Web. Companies such as Comcast have said regulators shouldn’t trouble them with more rules and that competition will ensure an open Internet. Advocates of so-called net neutrality, including Google, Skype and Amazon.com Inc., say Web service providers can’t be left to support some kinds of traffic over others.

In the action voided by the court yesterday, the FCC had censured Comcast for blocking subscribers using peer-to-peer software frequently used to view videos. The FCC decision had been hailed by consumer groups as a step toward keeping Web traffic free of hindrance from corporations.

Yesterday’s reversal “creates a dangerous situation, one where the health and the openness of the Internet is being held hostage” to the behavior of telephone and cable companies that own the supports used for Internet traffic to homes and businesses, the Open Internet Coalition said in an e-mailed statement.

The FCC needs to “explain” its power and should claim authority over Internet service providers under the same rules used for telephone service, said the coalition, a Washington- based group that includes Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine; Amazon.com, the largest Internet retailer;
IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns more than 50 Web sites; and EBay Inc.

Applying the regulations that govern more closely regulated phone services would give the FCC new basis to do things like bar Internet service providers from favoring certain kinds of content over others.

Net Neutrality

The FCC, which is led by Democrats, has planned a comment period that ends tomorrow on net neutrality rules. The restrictions would forbid companies from favoring content they own, and from overcrowding or slowing rivals’ services.
“The FCC is firmly committed to promoting an open Internet,” Jen Howard, a spokeswoman for the organization, said in an e-mailed statement.

The FCC may appeal the case, and may “seriously consider” introduction Internet services under the stricter regulatory classification used for phones, Andrew Lipman, a Washington- based partner in the media, telecommunications and technology practice at Bingham McCutchen LLP, said in an interview.
“We are gratified by the court’s decision,” Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed declaration. “Comcast remains committed to the FCC’s existing open Internet principles, and we will continue to work constructively with this FCC.”
AT&T, Verizon

Ben Scott, policy director of the support group Free Press that challenged Comcast, said yesterday’s decision leaves FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “powerless to stop public from blocking Web sites, unless he acts to reassert his authority” under telephone rules -- a step Scott said could be taken with a effortless majority vote at the agency.

Such a reclassification of Internet service would have “far-reaching and destructive consequences” together with years of “investment-deterring uncertainty and litigation,” companies including AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. said in a Feb. 22 letter to the FCC.
White House lecturer Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama supports net neutrality.