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The ruling, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, came after Comcast sued the FCC, asserting its right to slow down consumer access to BitTorrent, a file sharing service. Comcast stopped the practice. But the court said the FCC didn’t have the authority to force it to do so or, generally, to regulate Comcast's network management.

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Kelly Virella
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Congress could create a law to give the agency such authority. The FCC could also obtain that authority by reclassifying broadband service into the same category as telephones. Both measures would likely be opposed by the industry, but national-level advocates are gearing up to help the agency enact the latter.

"Right now, we are in a concerted push to try to give the FCC the popular support they would need to reclassify," says Timothy Karr, the New Jersey-based campaign director for Free Press, the nation's largest media reform organization. "Our campaign is now focused on giving them the political backing, the public support they need."

In New York City, Councilwoman Gale Brewer is preparing to revise and resubmit to the Council the resolution she first proposed in 2007 explicitly supporting the FCC's efforts to codify its regulation of the Internet.

"We care about the tech sector," says Kunal Malhotra, Brewer's Director of Legislation and Budget for. "It's a small business issue. If you're a web developer and you're putting out a small app and you're competing with one of the big players, why would they create a level playing field for you?"

Malhotra sees this week's ruling as a crossroads, not a dead end.

"I don't think we view the court case as a death knell to the movement," Malhotra says.