As reported in Lawrence Lessig’s blog, the FCC has issued its ruling against Comcast’s sleazy efforts to throttle BitTorrent and other P2P traffic.

Why sleazy?

Comcast at first denied it was happening. They stacked a public hearing with paid seat warmers to keep irate customers and activists from speaking to the FCC - when this was discovered the FCC had to schedule another hearing to ensure al voices were properly heard.

Finally (and only after they were caught red handed by AP and the EFF) they admitted it was interfering with P2P traffic but then tried to weasel out of the charges by claiming the FCC had no jurisdiction over the issue - this despite a 2006 agreement between Comcast, the FCC and Free Press which specifically recognized such authority on the part of the FCC.

In its ruling the FCC shat all over Comcast and their self-annointed position of impunity:

It would be entirely unfair for us to reverse course now in response to jurisdictional objections presented by another party to that proceeding, Comcast. Indeed, it would be akin to the famous example of Lucy pulling away the football just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it.

The ruling goes on to tear Comcast a new asshole and pour salted lemon juice in the wound. A full PDF of the 34 page ruling can be downloaded here.

One can only hope the CRTC takes notice of this direction and interpretation of how the net is supposed to operate despite the greedy bleatings of folks like Bell and Rogers who continue to throttle internet traffic that competes with their own online offerings in a blatant display of conflict of interest and anti-competitive business practices. The CRTC is expected to issue a response to the issue on October 31st.

Nail their slimy hides to the outhouse wall.

UPDATE: Susan Crawford’s blog offers a wonderfully concise overview of the FCC/Comcast decision and the potential fallout which will need to be addressed - both in the U.S. and most certainly here in Canada.

Cheers.