On Tuesday, a Federal Appeals court determined the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to enforce what are known as Net Neutrality regulations on ISPs. The FCC last August filed a case and desist order against Comcast for the measures that company had taken against BitTorrent transfers.

The court ruled the FCC "failed to tie its assertion" of regulatory authority to an actual, Congressional-passed law, the power to regulate an ISP's network management practices does not exist. This was the written opinion of Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Looks like this action by the court will negate one of the highly touted plans by current FCC Chairman Genachowski, who had already announced his plans to draft a formal set of Net neutrality rules, this in spite of the fact there was no Congressional empowerment to do so. "We will continue to embrace a free and open Internet as the right policy," said the National Cable and Telecomunications Association, and of course, Comcast was delighted to be able to "clear our name and our reputation."