The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s second hearing on Net neutrality held at Stanford University on Thursday found an absent Comcast, whose initial interference with the BitTorrent traffic led to such discussions in the first place.

“Consumers have come to expect and will continue to demand the open and neutral character that has always been the hallmark of the Internet,” said FCC commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein. The Commission is currently examining several petitions and complaints according to which “broadband providers have intentionally and secretly degraded applications in a way that undermines the open and interconnected character of the Internet,” Adelstein continued.

Commissioner Michael J. Copps said in his statement: “Now is the time for the FCC to add enforceable principle of non-discrimination to our Internet Policy Statement,” highlighting the importance of not tolerating “unreasonable discrimination,” he said, and making sure that anyone who breaks these policies won’t get away with it.

Comcast started a huge controversy last year, when the Federal Communications Commission received a complaint regarding an unfair bandwidth policy by altering peer-to-peer connections. The company’s explanation was very simple: some broadband users utilize immense amounts of bandwidth which overwhelms the network capacity and threatens to harm the online experience of other users.

In the meantime, Comcast changed its position and announced the collaboration with BitTorrent, when they promised to reconfigure their network management practices to adjust to today’s trends, and with Pando Networks for a “P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” for P2P users and ISPs.

“Now we face a constitutive choice with the Internet,” said Commissioner Michael J. Copps, “a choice between closed networks where the network operators control the user experience and open networks that are controlled by end users.”