The Federal Communications Commission’s 2010 order, which imposed network neutrality regulations on wireline broadband services, was struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week. With the help of their extremely formidable lobbyists, telecom and cable companies had been fighting these net neutrality restrictions for years. (Network neutrality debate may be headed back to FCC).

The original FCC order said that wireline ISPs ”shall not block lawful content, applications, services or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management” while also mandating that ISPs “shall not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access service.”

In its ruling against the FCC’s rules, the court said that such restrictions are not needed in part because consumers have a choice in which ISP they use. (U.S. appeals court kills net neutrality)

Price of course can make the notion of choice illusory. 

This was an important victory for telecom and cable companies. 

In spite of losing the case, the fight over net neutrality and how to regulate the internet is not over. The court suggested that the FCC takes "another shot at the issue by reconsidering how it regulates the Internet."  It also ruled, "That the FCC doesn’t have the authority to require broadband providers to treat online content equally — leaving [broadband providers] free to manipulate online traffic or charge companies such as Netflix Inc. a premium for faster delivery."

This part troubles me: "the FCC doesn’t have the authority to require broadband providers to treat online content equally." Whether the FCC has this authority or not (question for appeal), Congress does. 

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the commission was considering an appeal, in addition to "rethinking the way it approaches broadband regulation." (Network neutrality debate may be headed back to FCC)

Here are another two articles, from the Huffington Post, discussing Net Neutrality. The first one begins, "net neutrality is dead." I already disagreed with that, but the article is worth reading anyway. 

Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality

By Betsy Isaacson at the Huffington Post

Net neutrality is dead

At least that's the verdict of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which today struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order from 2010 that forced Internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable to abide by the principles of network neutrality. These principles broadly stipulate that ISP network management must be transparent, and that ISPs can't engage in practices that block, stifle or discriminate against (lawful) websites or traffic types on the Internet.

That's the bare bones story, wrapped in ugly acronyms (FCC, ISP, etc.). But why should you care that network neutrality ("net neutrality") may be gone for good?

1. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now discriminate against content they dislike.

Everyone gets their Internet from an Internet service provider -- an ISP like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Under net neutrality rules, these ISPs have to treat all content you access over the Internet "roughly the same way" -- they can't speed up traffic from websites they like or delay competitor's traffic.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs can discriminate, favoring their business partners while delaying or blocking websites they don't like. Think your cable CEO hates free online porn? Now you'll know for sure!

Keep reading Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality. 

One Frightening Chart Shows What You Might Pay For Internet Once Net Neutrality Is Gone

By Betsy Isaacson, at the Huffington Post

A graphic making its rounds on the web this week offered a glimpse of what the Internet might look like if net neutrality disappears. The takeaway? Not good.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down an Federal Communications Commission order that required Internet service providers to abide by the rules of “net neutrality.” ISPs had previously been forced to treat all types of web traffic equally -- meaning providers couldn’t block some sites or speed up loading times for others. Tuesday's decision means corporations can now block or slow down loading times for pages they don’t like, or could charge businesses a fee to have their pages load more quickly -- or at all.

Now, consumers looking to get Internet access might be met with something like this hypothetical set of pricing options like this, pointed out by Buzzfeed earlier this week:

This graphic was created by Reddit user quink, who wanted to illustrate what happens if net neutrality disappears. Originally created when Comcast tried to appeal the FCC's right to enforce net neutrality in 2009, the graphic is experiencing a renaissance in relevance after the ruling this week.

Continue reading: One Frightening Chart Shows What You Might Pay For Internet Once Net Neutrality Is Gone