FCC Considers Taking Action Against Comcast

Presto Vivace writes "According to CNet the Federal Communications Commission is considering taking action against cable operator Comcast modifying peer-to-peer traffic, a subject we've discussed here in the past. 'It looks like Chairman Martin, and by extension the commission, sees Comcast as going beyond simply managing its network. But even if the FCC decides that Comcast has violated Net neutrality principles, it's unclear what the agency can actually do to Comcast. The principles are not agency regulation.'"

My Comcast bittorrents good

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't get what all of the noise is about. My comcast bittorrents fine as long as i leave it on port 80 or 443

Don't hold your breath

[RingDev]

While I am hopeful that the FCC does act, I have about 0 faith in Kevin Martin.

Kevin Martin was an aide to Bush/Cheney in the 2000 election, he worked the Florida recount, he was coat tailed in as an aide in the transition from Clinton, was appointed to an advisory position once Bush took office, his wife was given a job as one of Cheney's aides, and since late 2007 he has been under investigation by Congress for abuse of power, and working to reduce the effective power of the FCC.

-Rick

Wait....

[crhylove]

The FCC is actually going to do something by, for, or of the people? I think every rational constitutionalist in the country just had a collective heart attack. Aren't these the same guys that effectively gave every radio station and television network to these five corporations:

AOL/Time Warner
Viacom
News Corp
Bertellsman
Disney

?

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then I have my rifle loaded and my FM transmitter on high.

Re:A Comcast customer

[dwillden]

Look at your upload speeds during and after the D/l has finished. If you have any desire to not be a leech, you should be trying to maintain at least a 1:1 ul/dl ratio. Comcast lets the dl go fine and allows normal uploading while you are actively dl'ing your file, but as soon as your machine finished dl'ing the file the forged resets start going out to both your machine and any machines trying to dl packets from you thus breaking the connection and prventing you from effectively seeding. This makes it very difficult to upload sufficiently to maintain a proper ratio.

Many torrent sites require a balanced ratio or close to it to be able to participate on their trackers, Comcast makes it difficult (though not impossible) to maintain such a ratio.

Re:Pull "common carrier" status

[AKAImBatman]

I didn't think cable companies had common carrier

As a cable provider, they don't. As an internet and phone provider, they do.

It's all about control. Cable companies have control over their content and thus can be held liable for their content. Internet and phone providers, however, do NOT have control over the data that passes over their wires. Thus they cannot be reasonably expected to be held accountable for that data. Unless they demonstrate that they are actively attempting to control the content. Then the legal veil is pierced and the common carrier status is lost.

Re:Take their license away?

[compro01]

cable companies have never been common carriers as far as internet service goes. DSL providers used to be, but aren't anymore.

what would be the proper course of action would be to remove their DMCA safe harbour status, which would render them liable for any copyrighted material moving through them [that occurs without the right holder's permission].

Re:New Speak

[u-235-sentinel]

That's like the phone company saying that you talk too much, and in order to slow down your talking they will suddenly and without warning hang up both telephones on the two ends of the conversation for you. Since you have a Redial button, this should only be a minor inconvenience for you at most.

that is unless Concast terminated your account. Then you are without service for 12 months.

Yeah I thought it was a joke until January 19, 2007 [youtube.com]

then I learned how sick this company really is.

Another reason I submitted to youtube and vuze.com my testimony [youtube.com] about Concast and why this is a problem and needs to be resolved.

Otherwise you will hear about more people like me being terminated. The video services on the internet aren't getting smaller. They are consuming more bandwidth today than ever before.

It's already happened to several people on my street. I guess the termination rate is higher than the .001% they 'claim' it is.

What? Concast lie? that would never happen right ;-)

Re:Pull "common carrier" status

[Richard_at_work]

From my understanding of the common carrier laws, only their phone service qualifies - ISPs have never had common carrier status.

Beyond wishful

[Kaseijin]

Personally, I'd love to see the FCC smack Comcast silly for this crap. Cable ISPs and Telco's like to claim Common Carrier protections for a world of things. But they want to be able to filter content and manipulate traffic too, and the FCC needs to put it's Governmental boot down and say "No! You can filter, or you can be common carrier. Not both!"

ISPs don't claim to be common carriers. The FCC has classified them "information services" and therefore not subject to regulations concerning "telecommunications services". Hoping for a timid FCC to finally flex its muscle would be wishful thinking; you're hoping for an aggressive FCC to reverse course.