Comcast Continues to Block and Dodge
November 29th, 2007 by tkarrDespite the dust storm of bad press and legal filings, cable giant Comcast continues to deceive customers, threaten employees and disrupt peer-to-peer traffic over their broadband network.
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An investigation just released by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) confirms earlier reports that the cable giant is secretly and selectively degrading various file sharing applications using “TCP reset packets.”
This is consistent with ongoing complaints from customers who state Comcast is blocking access to popular and legal video, photo and music sharing applications. The evidence is mounting.
The Case Against Comcast
In October, an Associated Press exposé found the company to be actively interfering with user access — calling the violation “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination.” This was later confirmed by the first extensive EFF report.
Earlier this month, members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition took action and filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission. The filing calls upon the agency to take urgent action to stop violations of consumers’ right to access the software and content of their choice.
In an accompanying complaint, Free Press and Public Knowledge asked the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every affected subscriber. Comcast is the nation’s largest cable company and second-largest Internet service provider, with 12.9 million subscribers.
EFF’s second report, released on Wednesday, confirms that the company is indeed meddling with our ability to connect and share information with one another — a gross violation of both the letter and spirit of Net Neutrality.
Hacks, Threats and Lies
“Comcast is essentially deploying against their own customers techniques more typically used by malicious hackers,” write the EFF report’s authors. “This is doubtless how Comcast would characterize other parties that forged traffic to make it appear that it came from Comcast or its subscribers.”
Despite the evidence, Comcast executive vice president David Cohen told Ars Technica that Comcast does not block access to file sharing applications and that the company’s traffic control mechanisms are permissible because the FCC’s standards explicitly allow “reasonable network management” practices.
Comcast has relentlessly withheld information about its traffic management activities, going so far as to threaten to terminate employees who discussed the specifics of its P2P blocking with anyone outside of the company.
They then lie to their customers, delivering a service far inferior to the one they are billing them for.
Sound “reasonable”?
We Told You So
Comcast’s claims are a flimsy cover. Blatant and deceptive blocking is not “reasonable management.” It is the type of problem Net Neutrality advocates have warned would occur without proper protections.
Our message to both the FCC and Congress remains the same:
We told you this would happen. The network companies can’t be trusted to keep their hands off our broadband connections. Now do something about it.
December 1st, 2007 at 9:57 am
[…] Comcast Continues to Block and Dodge By tkarr EFF’s second report — released on Wednesday — confirms that the company is indeed meddling with our ability to connect and share information with one another — a gross violation of both the letter and spirit of Net Neutrality. … Tags:broadband competition censored consumers choice denial of service net neutralityRelated StoriesNet Neutrality Links 11-24-2007Put The Pieces TogetherThe Truth Begins To Unfold […]
December 11th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Someone please point me to some writing as to why net neutrality makes sense from an economic perspective. My question is very basic - Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and others own Internet backbone. Why should they not be allowed to price discriminate? Price discrimination is commonly used in most industries.
Also, price discrimination aside, what is the evidence that backbone owners discriminated against users, for instance by selectively queuing bits from competitors?
Thanks.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:38 am
They are not the only ones who own the Internet backbone - but they hold a majority of it. The reason the Internet has been so successful is that it has been an open network that is not bogged down by countless restrictions based on the whims of each participating company or group. Each company and group takes advantage of services, software, and ideas that technically “belong” to someone else in order to operate their part of the network. If we were to allow the network to be segmented, we will have smaller networks that can sometimes talk to the world, as opposed a whole world wide network. I would think the results of this would be obvious as the negative impact would be huge.
They not only queue bits, but banish them completely. A fan of Skype? You won’t be if the service quits working on Comcast. Who are most people going to blame - Comcast or Skype? They’ve been messing with VoIP for a long time now, and I know because I’ve been a customer of theirs off and on for the past five years. Frankly I am rather tired of it, and then having them say something like, “Well, if you upgrade to OUR VoIP plan, you won’t have to worry about this!” Yeah, like I’m going to pay more for a service from a company that provides flaky Internet connections. It encourages a monopoly, as we really do not have much choice in broadband connections in most areas of the country. It’s either Comcast or Qwest in my area, and the way both companies handle customer service as well as their Internet connections is just dismal.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Comcast seems to bottle bandwidth at times. Students and gamers complain in my area when its down. When repairs are in one area of state entire area gets affected.
LA TIMES seems to be filtered now.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
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