FCC Makes Non-Nazi Ruling : What?!

Twist of the year, including last year: The FCC has actually ruled in favor of personal rights over giant corporations.

Comcast, a cable television and Internet provider (and bane of many a customer with no other choice), was trying to stop the usage of peer-to-peer sharing (BitTorrent and other services) by using a tricky combination of hardware and software to stifle that type of Internet traffic. This is speculation but I’ve always believed this was because they were receiving pressure from the RIAA, but whatever. Either way, this practice could render your upload and download speeds completely impotent if you chose to use certain types of data transmittance, regardless of whether or not you were participating in ‘illegal’ activity.

In a ridiculously badass and unexpected decision, the FCC totally fucking facepalmed Comcast by ruling the behavior illegal.

In a ruling Friday, the Federal Communications Commission ordered Comcast to end its “discriminatory network-management practices,” under which the provider of cable-TV and broadband access was attempting to curb its customers’ use of peer-to-peer services such as BitTorrent. The company is required to fully disclose its practices to the agency within 30 days and to submit a plan to halt the practices by the end of the year. (Marketwatch.com)

Eat it, Comcast. FCC, maybe you’re not so bad after all.