Thanks!

Comcast joined the list of phone and cable giants that want to become the gatekeepers to your world.

The company is now blocking the file-sharing network BitTorrent, according an investigation by the Associated Press. The act is a striking violation of Net Neutrality, the principle which ensures that ISPs treat all web traffic without discrimination.

A problem in need of a solution

Service providers often slow down some types of traffic to manage flow, but Comcast is actually blocking completed files that users upload and try to share with another user. (For a detailed explanation of how this happens, visit Susan Crawford’s blog.)

This practice underscores the need for clear laws ensuring an open and neutral Internet.

Save the Internet partner Public Knowledge says there is a right and a wrong way to manage traffic: “The right way is to let consumers know how much bandwidth they can use, as companies in other parts of the world do. The wrong way is to take control of a consumer’s computer to throttle their use of the network that Comcast simply doesn’t like.”

Cable and phone companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon should not be allowed to play gatekeeper over their consumers’ ability to send or receive legal content over the Internet. It is time for Congress to pass laws that protect free speech on all 21st century communications.

The BitTorrent file-sharing model is on the cutting edge of innovation for online video distribution and the future of our media system. If you want content that isn’t available on the Comcast system, the Internet is the place to go and this is the technology that is going to bring it to you. It’s no surprise that Comcast, whose primary business is video, is working to smother a growing competitor.

“This incident is the latest in a pattern of bad behavior from the telephone and cable companies,” says Ben Scott, Free Press policy director. “This is a disturbing trend that validates all of the concerns of the Net Neutrality advocates.”

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.