DOJ Likes Packet Sniffing, Votes For AT&T

Your first thought may be: What's the Department of Justice got to do with Net Neutrality? Well, essentially nothing at this point, except that the FCC asked the Antitrust Division for its opinion. The Commission could have saved some time by just jotting down what AT&T said.

It's interesting that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett and his Antitrust Division saw no real problem with the current duopoly in the broadband market, nor could they find, equipped as they are with discovery materials and aid, any precedent that could sway them into thinking a regulatory approach may actually be beneficial.  

Which is kind of funny, because I didn't have any trouble finding at least
Barnett thinks one or two choices of broadband providers is plenty for Americans, and that "regulators should be careful not to impose regulations that could limit consumer choice and investment in broadband facilities,” despite that incumbents are already investing in fiber anyway, which is the future, which they will control, you know, both of them.

The DOJ goes on in
"Without network neutrality, companies are free to turn over user information without a warrant or block users from desired content – as AT&T recently did ‘accidentally’ by blocking Pearl Jam’s criticism of the President during a concert performance carried on AT&T’s broadband service."

"Factually, the Department of Justice filing – like the industry filings it shamelessly parrots – is plain wrong. Americans pay more money for less speed than businesses and citizens in comparable developed nations such as Japan, South Korea, England, or France thanks to the policy of ’regulatory restraint’ urged in today’s DOJ filing.”