Several perspectives were given on the decision on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the case "Comcast Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission." The case involved a 2008 "cease and desist" order from the commission towards Comcast over the slowing down of information sent from the peer-to-peer file-sharing service BitTorrent. The panel of three judges unanimously decided the FCC did not have explicit authority to regulate how Internet service providers handle traffic over their networks.

The decision overturned efforts by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mandate "net neutrality," the principle that all Internet content should be treated equally by network service providers. The decision also has implications on the potential for the FCC to reclassify broadband providers and for the FCC's recently released Broadband Plan.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton and Marvin Ammori were interviewed separately in the studio. Howard Symons and Markham Erickson were interviewed by telephone. Mr. Ammori argued the case before the three judge panel for the intervening consumer group Free Press. Mr. Symons argued the cause for intervenors National Cable & Telecommunications Association and NBC Universal. Mr. Markham directs the Open Internet Coalition, which represents websites such as Google and YouTube that opposed the decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

"The Communicators" is C-SPAN's weekly series that examines the people and events currently shaping telecommunications policy.