While I agree with the Supremes on the P2P network lawsuit, I just as strongly disagree with them on their ruling in National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. v. Brand X Internet Services. Background information: If a phone company has lines already in place, and another company wants to offer service as well, the first company HAS to let the second company use its lines for a reasonable fee. This is mandated in the Communications Act of 1934. This idea was taken from the law that forced railroad operators to allow their competitors to use their tracks for a reasonable fee.

Basically the point of this case was that Brand X claimed that it should be able to use a cable company’s cable lines to provide broadband cable modem service. The classification of telephone companies is a telecommunication service and cable companies are an information service. So the cable company said the Comm. Act of 1934 didn’t apply to it. A lower court and then the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the cable company had to allow Brand X to use its cable lines. Which was good. This creates competition in the services provided and the cable company still profits from its investment on placing the lines. Well, the Supremes thought otherwise. They decided that the Act of 1934 only applied to “basic service” meaning “a pure transmission capability over a communications path that is virtually transparent in terms of its interaction
with customer supplied information” and that cable modem service is an “enhanced service” meaning “computer processing applications [were] used to act on the content, code, protocol, and other aspects of the sub-scriber’s information.”

My opinion: ridiculous. To me this just shows how technologically ignorant our current political leaders are. Do they honestly think that voice transmissions don’t have computers involved? What about faxes? What are they going to do when we get to VoIP?