Under the US Constitution, the people, including in this case corporations, have a right to "petition the government", and that is what these contributions are. They are a way that Comcast makes known to politicians its priorities. People who oppose Comcast's priorities can also contribute and petition the government. Typically, however, those better organized get their way more frequently. The open Internet is over. The Internet has turned into a corporate and profit driven shake-down racket.

Great to see the U.S. government finally using some of its high technology to stop the scourge of drug smuggling and sleazy lawless murdering criminal gangs that have been operating almost without limit along the Southern Border.

The next step: bring in the flying drones to intercept and destroy the shipments.

The same technology can be used to go inside of buildings, such as shopping malls, government offices such as the Driver's License Bureau, courtrooms, or even in public bathrooms, subways, or one's private homes (such as for selling real estate), or on boats, inside museums, and so on. Possibly with similar micro camera, one could go inside a drainage pipe.

The people attacking the Google car probably could be charged with assault under the Common Law.

The best way to handle this is to break up TimeWarner and force them to divest of all internet carrier services. This will separate content from carrier ISP services. These internet services then can be regulated to force them to avoid discrimination against specific information or content providers. It would seem this is analogous to Sherman Anti-Trust Act issues. By throttling the services of competitor information providers, TimeWarner is perhaps engaging in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct interstate trade, a Federal violation. The logical thing to do is for the State of Texas Attorney General Office to file for a permanent injunction against TimeWarner in Texas to prevent discrimination against content services. At the same time, it makes sense to file a class action suit against TimeWarner with recovery being the extra costs forced on consumers by its activities, plus punitive damages because TimeWarner's actions are willful and malicious. Such a class action suit would be filed not only on behalf of the users of iTunes services, but also on behalf of the major record and entertainment studies because this malicious action on the part of TimeWarner is interfering with the contract relationship already established between users and the iTunes store, and between Apple and the studios. The damages to the studios would be measured in terms of the lost sales and profits from users who are "throttled" by TimeWarner. Again, punitive damages should be sought because TimeWarner knows of the existing relationship and willfully is interfering with it.