Comcast: We made 'mistake' in slowing Web traffic to file-sharing site

[Irish_shark]

Source: The Hill

By Kim Hart - 01/27/10

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on Wednesday said “it was a mistake” for the company to slow down Internet traffic to file-sharing site BitTorrent.

During an address at the Congressional Internet Caucus’s State of the Net Conference on Capitol Hill, a contrite Roberts noted the company changed its policy without government intervention.

“We realized it was not the right solution," he said.

The temporary traffic-throttling was one of only two instances that interrupted access to content or websites, Roberts said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/78277-comcast-we-messed-up-but-net-neutrality-rules-still-not-needed

[truthisfreedom]

1. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I don't believe that file-sharing of copyrighted material is right. I also want my internet at top speed all the time.

[ParkieDem]

2. It wouldn't bother me.

Something like 1-2% of internet users take up much, much more than their share of bandwidth, downloading literally hundreds of movies and songs a day (much of it probably porn -- not that there's anything wrong with that).

I have no problems with them getting charged more or having their usage restricted. If they don't like it, they can go with another carrier.

[hlthe2b]

5. You are incredibly short-sighted...

while you may not have a problem with slowing traffic to these sites... how about when they decide that certain political material is "low priority" from their corporate point of view (and remember, as a corporation, they have an unlimited access to "political input")... or perhaps they decide to slow traffic to YOUR business (since they are invested in a competitor.

How incredibly, incredibly short-sighted.

[slay]

16. So true. If we open the gate to allowing file sharing to blocked or slowed - where will it end?

And - just for all the people here who think they understand how file sharing works - you probably don't. Torrents are but ONE of many ways to share files over the internet. There are many other ways to spread files around that don't involve file sharing as well. And the reality is - File sharing is NOT hurting anyone's speed, and if it ever does, how about siding with THE PEOPLE over the corporations and make the corporations get us up to speed with Europe where they have more more bandwidth available to all their citizens.

I swear there are some paid corporate trolls who post pro-corporate stances on threads like this. Sigh.

[ParkieDem]

23. It's different ...

If it's content-based, then that's another story. If it's purely bandwidth/usage-based, to keep people from hogging limited bandwidth, then I don't have a problem with people being restricted or charged more.

[MicaelS]

28. The problem with your bandwidth/usage-based mindset

Is that we are headed toward digital delivery of most of the content we consume. That where the "content providers" including the ISPs want us to go. They want to save money by stopping the production of physical media. No more inventory to deal with, to ship, to worry about getting stolen, they pocket all the money by cutting out the middlemen (Wal Mart and Best Buy). If a dual layer blu-ray movie can consist of up to 50GB and you have to download that, that is going to take a very long time. With my current 5 M/Bs DSL service, I can only download about 2.3GB per hour. That means it would take over 21 hours to download a SINGLE BR movie. You want to wait a day before you can watch your movie you just "bought"? I wouldn't, I would want my movie in about an hour. That means we would need 100 M/Bs or faster to the home.

If the ISPs go to a pay-per-GB method, then your costs are going to quickly escalate. You want to be charged $25 to buy a BR download from one provider, and then another $1 per GB for its download by your ISP? Or do you want to be held to buying content only from your ISP so you don't get charged for the bandwidth?

At the same times the ISPs are pushing digital delivery, they do not want to spend the money to upgrade their networks. They want to claim that file-sharing or other types of "bandwidth hogs" are causing their network problems. It's just like all the problems AT&T is having in major cities with iPhone users. The problem is they have oversold their network, it can't support the usage the iPhone puts on it, so they want to blame the consume, and "educate" them to reduce their usage.

The fact is the ISPs are going to have to spend the money necessary to upgrade their networks, and quit whining about users using too much of their bandwidth. All this talk about bandwidth hogs is just so much smoke and mirrors.

[DJ13]

6. The other 98-99% who dont use it non-stop pay Comcast enough

to keep the service at full speed for everyone.

[Selatius]

12. It sets a negative precedent in that it opens the door to pervasive monitoring

If Comcast wants to get into the business of proving the guilt of certain people, then the burden rests upon their shoulders to prove that these individuals are, indeed, downloading illegal material. However, this means they would have to monitor your connection at all times. This raises massive privacy issues. Simply throttling connections based on a particular service a user is using is discriminatory because not all bittorrent files are illegally shared movies and music files.

Not only that, the contract users signed when picking Comcast as their ISP does not mention anything about restriction of services based on heavy usage. It's a classic case of breach of contract. They stopped throttling connections precisely because people were threatening to sue them to hell and back for the breach. If the contract says you get such a service for a particular fee and does not mention anything about heavy usage restrictions, then you are very much expected to live up to the words of your contract or face being sued in court.

[UpInArms]

14. what happens when you live in an area where there is only one

carrier.

And, yes, I live in that world.

Thanks for nothing, friend.

[crikkett]

22. you might not be looking

if you don't already have satellite and radio internet options you will, soon enough.

Take care,
:hi:

[UpInArms]

24. radio and satellite are not options here

I live in BFE northwest Misery and there are few, if any, things that are available in rural America.

[crikkett]

29. I'll trade places with you

for a while anyway, until you beg to go back to BFE...

(continuing the earlier thought)
I'm really surprised that Satellite isn't available to you. I thought satellite coverage was ubiquitous.
I wonder if there isn't grant money in establishing rural high-speed internet services.

[UpInArms]

33. actually, I gave up the city bustle and hustle almost 17 years ago

and have really not regretted that decision. I sometimes miss the restaurants, movies, plays, people - but I never miss the traffic and the noise and the sheer craziness that abounds there.

Maybe someday we'll have high-speed, but I'm no longer on a dial-up connection :D

You can come and visit, though!

:hi:

[bitchkitty]

27. That to me is a shocking, irresponsible point of view. n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Whaddaya think about your broadband provider sniffing around your internet activity?

Got an opinion on that?

[kirby]

4. Do you want Comcast monitoring your traffic

so they can determine whether the files you are sharing are copyrighted or not?

[Pab Sungenis]

8. Bittorrent has uses other than piracy.

Linux distros use it. Podcasts use it. Air America used to use it back when they were worth anything to get their shows to listeners who didn't have local stations.

Piracy should be fought by copyright holders, not networks.

[wroberts189]

13. Lots of legal stuff on Bittorent ..and if your speed slows down call the people that sold it to you.

If you go into a restaurant and get only half of what you ordered ..yet paid for a full order ..who do you blame ? The other customers? No ..

They are skimping on bandwidth upstream and promising you speeds they cannot deliver.

[jtrockville]

19. If you want top speed all the time, ditch cable.

A Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) plant is a flaky way to deliver two-way communications. It was designed for broadcast. Get fiber to the home (Verizon FiOS) if you can.

[louis-t]

7. Re: "it was a mistake".

I call it a rehearsal. Look for more of this from Comcast. I. do. not. trust. them.

[fascisthunter]

9. yuh... it was a "mistake"... my ass it was

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Translation:

" It was a mistake....that we got found out about it".

[fascisthunter]

15. yup...

[G. L. Herter]

10. A couple of points

1. BitTorrent is not a site.
2. I download legal torrents frequently, usually Linux or Unix distributions. Glad I'm not using Comcast!

[slay]

17. There is a site for the main BT program, but yeah, they were throttling the P2P traffic, not

the BT website, or at least not just the website - which no knowledgeable P2P person would ever use anyways. Throttling traffic is wrong - I paid my monthly bill to access the internet, not the internet that Comcast approves of. Wow I can't believe some people in this thread are actually siding with Comcast being able to monitor their internet use.

BTW - I don't want to use the term legal or illegal since I don't believe sharing should ever be illegal - but the gaming company Blizzard routinely distributes updates, demos, and other files quite nicely through torrents. It's a great model I would love to see more people and companies pick up on.

Nice post G.L. :hi:

[boppers]

26. Comcast doesn't charge for what people think they're paying for.

People who are willing to pay for 6-12Mb/s have no problem getting it, un-fettered, all the time. It's not cheap, several thousand dollars a month.

The funny/sad thing is that Comcast users who are buying burst speeds at that rate seem to think that burst is the same as committed rate (it's not). If you want to pay the thousands of dollars a month for that rate, no throttling, lots of companies would be willing to help you out. Comcast doesn't sell it, though.

I agree with ISP's being allowed to throttle, meter, and other wise bill for use, and charge appropriately, and I think some truth in advertising is desperately needed.

[boppers]

25. Welcome to DU!

Yes, this story is so technically wrong it's laughable. Some of the replies, too.

1. BitTorrent.com *is* a site, but that's not what was being throttled.
2. One of the largest BT users in the world is Blizzard. They use it for distributing a game called "World of Warcraft".
3. Comcast wasn't reading web traffic.
4. Comcast wasn't even reading BT traffic, it was sending slowdown (reset) packets in response to excess traffic.

[jtrockville]

18. A "mistake" that lasted more than a year? Hard to believe.

[BootinUp]

20. Geek news update

BitTorrent is not a site.

[BootinUp]

21. Liberal Geek news update

Don't use Comcast.

[defendandprotect]

30. COMCAST also makes $500 million a year from internet porn --!!

[boppers]

31. How'd you come to that number? Link? eom

[defendandprotect]

32. Read it somewhere a few years ago -- probably more now...

We had Comcast for a time as our internet server, as well --

comcast.net was our official id -- we had comcast as official e-mail --

We didn't use it --

and very quickly it was filled with porn -- !! It was astonishing!!

I doubt many here are giving much attention to this issue, but porn can be

like gambling addition. Easy to ensnare men into porn. Also gets expensive.

And frequently, from what I've read, lots of attempts to move men from just porn

to child porn!!

The porn industry is simply vile propaganda vs women -- who they exploit as "whores."

[Kurska]

34. Blaming filesharing for network slowdown is like blaming a fat guy at a buffet that ran out of food.

If you advertise "all you can eat" and don't bring enough of it, would you really accept the resturant's explanation of "Well we had a bunch of big eaters come in today so thats why you get no food".

Besides, you can blow through as much bandwidth as fielsharers do just by spending a hour or so on youtube or any other video heavy website, how is it fair to blame them?

[MaineDem]

35. It's always easier to ask for forgiveness...

...than to ask for permission.