The , announced last December, especially after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled this month that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission didn't have the authority to enforce its net neutrality principles on Comcast, said Robb Topolski, a veteran networking engineer who discovered Comcast's network management practices back in 2007.

Topolski, in a , called on Comcast customers to send a letter opting out of the settlement to the settlement administrator by May 13. Under the , a Comcast customer who had used peer-to-peer software between April 2006 and December 2008 or used Lotus Notes to send e-mail between March and October 2007 would be entitled to a maximum of US$16.

"If people reject the settlement, they are freed from the restrictions of this settlement and can sue independently or join any other action," Topolski said in an e-mail. "If enough people reject the settlement, it sends a strong message that the class of people that this settlement was intended to represent are dissatisfied."

A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment on Topolski's blog post.

Topolski has criticized the settlement previously, but the appeals court ruling against the FCC now means there's no regulatory agency to enforce net neutrality rules against broadband providers selectively throttling network traffic, he said.