[cnet] FCC Set To Punish Comcast On P2P Blocking - Overclock.net

Malachor · 07-27-08

Quote:

The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to take steps to punish Comcast for allegedly blocking access to file-sharing traffic.

Three of the five FCC commissioners have voted in favor of an item saying Comcast violated federal policy by dialing down peer-to-peer traffic over its network, according to FCC officials cited in The Wall Street Journal.

The news isn't much of a surprise, given that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has publicly criticized Comcast for the practice and recommended to the rest of the commissioners that they vote in favor of the decision.

"The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers' access to the Internet," the Associated Press quoted Martin saying earlier this month. "We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles."

If the punishment comes through, which is all but assured now, Comcast wouldn't be fined. But it would be ordered to stop blocking or slowing traffic to peer-to-peer sites like BitTorrent, explain to consumers and the commission how it has blocked such traffic in the past, and publicly disclose how it plans to manage its network in the future.

Comcast hasn't denied slowing traffic to file-sharing sites. At a public hearing in February, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said, "Comcast may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has or is projected to have an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service."

However, Cohen did deny blocking such sites outright, saying, "Comcast does not block any Web site, application, or Web protocol, including peer-to-peer services, period." "What we are doing is a limited form of network management objectively based upon an excessive bandwidth-consumptive protocol during limited periods of network congestion," he explained.

A final ruling on the issue is expected to come at a commission meeting scheduled for August 1.

Source

Shouldn't have your connection slowed down or cut off just because your downloading so much or whatever. Might as well refund your monthly bill.
I'm glad that they have this coming to them.

XFreeRollerX · 07-27-08

Good riddance took them long enough to dish out fines!!!!

I like how people "stealing" music get fined so quickly (esp if not taken to court) yet these Turd heads doing REALLY illegal stuff to paying customers

Edit note:
IMO when they say this:"Comcast may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has or is projected to have an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service."

Makes me think that they have insufficient hardware to support their advertising claims of speed

jasoncho92 · 07-27-08

They should just set more servers up if they really care about the customers.

Malachor · 07-27-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by XFreeRollerX

Makes me think that they have insufficient hardware to support their advertising claims of speed

That is exactly what I'm thinking, well that's what you get for being cheap. :P

003 · 07-27-08

Nice. This will be an interesting thread as there are quite a few members on OCN that come to mind who actually support Comcast's practices.

bluedevil · 07-27-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003

Nice. This will be an interesting thread as there are quite a few members on OCN that come to mind who actually support Comcast's practices.

Not I. Though I have never had per say "bad" service from them, I have heard tons of horror stories. Overall, I think they are getting what they deserve.

yawnbox · 07-27-08

Quote:

it would be ordered to stop blocking or slowing traffic to peer-to-peer sites like BitTorrent, explain to consumers and the commission how it has blocked such traffic in the past, and publicly disclose how it plans to manage its network in the future.

..is a good start. i hope this leads to better practices, and not just for comcast but for other ISPs

*VulcanDragon* · 07-27-08

Good. My issue with Comcast has never actually been that they control their network traffic, it's that they do it secretly. Paying customers have a right to know that their traffic may be throttled, or that there is a bandwidth cap and how close they are to reaching that cap in any given month, etc. The only reason they keep this stuff secret is because they know they will lose customers if they are transparent about it. By being forced to be transparent, then either a) they will stop doing these things, or (more likely) b) customers at least have the information needed to make an informed competitive choice (when such choices are available, anyway).

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasoncho92

They should just set more servers up if they really care about the customers.

Adding servers doesn't add network bandwidth.

lattyware · 07-27-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasoncho92

They should just set more servers up if they really care about the customers.

They should lay more fibre, actually.

shinyboy · 07-27-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by VulcanDragon

Good. My issue with Comcast has never actually been that they control their network traffic, it's that they do it secretly. Paying customers have a right to know that their traffic may be throttled, or that there is a bandwidth cap and how close they are to reaching that cap in any given month, etc. The only reason they keep this stuff secret is because they know they will lose customers if they are transparent about it. By being forced to be transparent, then either a) they will stop doing these things, or (more likely) b) customers at least have the information needed to make an informed competitive choice (when such choices are available, anyway).

Adding servers doesn't add network bandwidth.

Completely agree, a company can provide whatever service they want to. The fact that they choose not to tell people what that service is, even when questioned specifically about issues is the problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XFreeRollerX

I like how people "stealing" music get fined so quickly (esp if not taken to court) yet these Turd heads doing REALLY illegal stuff to paying customers

they should both be fined quickly i agree

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[cnet] FCC Set To Punish Comcast On P2P Blocking

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