This stinks of Comcast positioning itself to degrade or block competition in areas where it competes with downloads. It would be convenient for Comcast to be able to block movies from being downloaded to push subscribers toward Comcast's on demand movies.

Comcast does not seem to be suffering too much from competition. It was reported today that Comcast's profits are up 54 percent.

The FCC filing was prompted by an Associated Press report last fall that showed Comcast was blocking some subscribers from using BitTorrent, a file-sharing program. A number of consumer groups complained to the FCC about Comcast's actions.

Consumers do not need ISPs to judge what content or programs are acceptable to flow through the Internet. The beauty of the Internet is that it is an open system. It is more vital than ever to have an open Internet as more of every day life migrates in some way to the Web.

Congress must act before Comcast and other anti-consumer luminaries like AT&T bully the FCC into allowing a filtered Internet. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Introduced a network neutrality bill that would keep ISPs from blocking content. The House need not waste time debating. Make Markey's bill law.