The FCC's ruling against Comcast could actually be a Trojan horse, giving Comcast and other internet providers a way to get around net neutrality.
Instead of throttling Bittorrent, providers like Comcast will get the green light for implementing monthly data caps. This sounds all well and "net neutral" in theory, until you realize that data caps specifically cripple video.
This means that users will think twice before watching a political video, and they'll think twice before downloading a TV show from iTunes or renting a movie from a Netflix online service.
But hey, if you really want to get lots of video content, just include Comcast cable TV service with your Comcast cable internet service. Golly. That's not too much like sneaking around net neutrality, is it. It's just Comcast having an excuse to price video content from all other providers above the "all you can eat" video price of their cable service.
All those Youtubes of gotcha moments from politicians? Better start counting your bytes and saving your pennies, or forget about watching them. But don't worry, Comcast cable has three 24 hour news networks. Why pay to watch political content on Youtube, when you can get your fix on Fox News at a flat monthly rate?
And with more and more software out there that puts video chat and voice over IP in hands of your average user, video conferencing is no longer a high end business application. Data caps, without explicitly targeting video chat and voice over IP, will have the direct result of stifling these services. (Unless of course you buy our bundled phone service!)
So let's not cheer this ruling yet. The FCC needs to be made aware of why data caps are a dangerous end-run around net neutrality.