I wonder if this will embolden the Internet Service Providers to revert back to their torrent-busting ways?

… [T]he U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today that the agency lacks the authority to regulate the policies of Internet service providers.

In Comcast Corp. v. FCC, the court considered whether the FCC could bar Comcast from interfering with its customers’ use of peer-to-peer networking applications. The FCC acknowledged it had no explicit regulatory authority to do so, but the agency claimed it had “ancillary” jurisdiction over such network management practices.

The court didn’t buy it.

My greater concern is, if Congress fails to act to give the FCC regulatory authority over the ISPs, are we heading down that muddy slope toward content-discriminatory, multi-tiered access?

The Legal Times blog would seem to think so, calling Comcast Corp. v. FCC, “a decision with far-reaching implications for the future of the Internet.”

(via Legal Times blog)