In an apparent victory for proponents of an open Internet, a bipartisan majority of the Federal Communications Commission has reportedly resolved to vote to sanction U.S. cable operator Comcast for blocking consumer’s Internet traffic. The dispute stems from an Associated Press investigation last year that revealed Comcast was forging reset packets to shut down selected peer-to-peer file sharing connections on its network, effectively blocking consumers’ ability to access an unrestricted Internet. The action violates the four “principles of openness” the FCC laid down for the Internet in 2005, and while Comcast felt those principles didn’t carry the force of federal regulation…the FCC apparently feels differently.
Tag Archive: Marvin Ammori
Comcast Wants to Craft P2P Bill of Rights
Giant U.S. cable operator Comcast is currently being investigated by the FCC for interfering with peer-to-peering traffic from its subscribers, but recently said it will stop blocking P2P traffic in favor of other traffic-management techniques. Now, the company is partnering with Pando Networks in an effort to develop a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities," a document which would try to define both consumer options and network operators’ best practices for managing P2P applications on their networks, as serve as a standard for the industry.
Comcast Faces Net Neutrality Complaint
Legal scholars from Yale, Harvard, and Stanford along with public advocacy groups have filed a network neutrality complaint (PDF) with the Federal Communications Commission against U.S. cable provider Comcast, claiming the company is intentionally degrading network performance and discriminating against customers’ use of the network—specifically, blocking the use of peer-to-peer file sharing applications like BitTorrent and Gnutella. If the complaint moves forward, it could be the first major test of the FCC’s network neutrality principles.
Although these principles are not law, the FCC indicated a strong willingness to enforce them via its regulatory authority shuld it see evidence communications providers were violating them.
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