An AP article reports that Kevin Martin, head of the Federal Communications Commission, will recommend that Comcast be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.
Martin will circulate an order recommending enforcement action against the company on Friday among his fellow commissioners, who will vote on the measure at an open meeting on Aug. 1.
Network engineer Richard Bennett’s new article for The Register: Dismantling a Religion: The EFF’s Faith-Based Internet explores the difference between the way the EFF wants to see the the Internet managed and current discussions under way in the IETF.
Bottom line: the Internet has never had a user-based fairness system, and it needs one. All networks need one. Continue reading
Comcast’s recent efforts to throttle file transfers using the BitTorrent protocol have led, perhaps predictably, to a renewed call for Congress to enact stiff Net neutrality laws. But even some supporters of new laws–meaning enacting antidiscrimination regulations aimed at broadband providers–are now reluctantly conceding that the proposals that have been circulating in Congress for more than a year may not do much to stop Comcast. Continue reading
In the wake of the detection and reporting of Comcast Corporation’s controversial interference with Internet traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive account of Comcast’s packet-forging activities and has released software and documentation instructing Internet users on how to test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by their own ISPs. Continue reading
A San Francisco Bay area subscriber to Comcast Corp.’s high-speed Internet service has sued the company, alleging it engages in unfair business practices by interfering with subscribers’ file sharing. The subscriber based his claims on the results of an investigation by the Associated Press published last month that showed Philadelphia-based Comcast actively interferes with attempts some high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online. Mark N. Todzo, the lead lawyer in the case, said his client suspected before reading the AP report that Comcast was interfering with his Internet traffic. “What the AP report did was just confirm to him that it wasn’t just him who was suffering from the problem,” Todzo said. “There was this confluence of events where everyone seemed to reach the same conclusion, which was that Comcast was engaging in this activity.” Continue reading