Long live fair use

Grokster was overturned by the Supreme court today (paving the way for lawsuits against P2P software providers)... and cable broadband "access" is dead (the Court decided to defer to the geniuses at the FCC, who haven't been interested in facilities-based competition in years).

Brand-X (the π in broadband access case) would have allowed some competition for cable-broadband internet - using elements of the cable monopoly's network (much like the limited UNEP "unbundled network elements" allowed for some local phone competition in recent years... until that program died). The regulatory trend continues to be deference to the FCC... and effective competition is about the last thing on the FCC's to-do list. DSL vs. Cable (and soon vs 3G wireless like EV-DO) had better be enough to keep prices down (according to my list bill... it's not).