Comcast

FCC: No plans for a Comcast-BitTorrent hearing at Stanford

WASHINGTON--You may have heard that the Federal Communications Commission is plotting a Stanford University "do-over" of a recent public Net neutrality hearing, where Comcast paid people to stand in line. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.

At a meeting with reporters at agency headquarters here, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday dismissed those reports, saying nothing is planned. He suggested that the rumors may have spread because he's making a solo trip to Palo Alto, Calif., on Friday to speak to a law school conference.

Similarly, a Stanford representative told CNET News.com that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 672: Spammer in the slammer

Episode 672

Judge: Wikileaks gets its domain name back http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9883240-38.html

First spam felony conviction upheld: No free speech to spam http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080302-first-spam-felony-conviction-upheld-no-free-speech-to-spam.html

Vista prices fall even further http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9883961-56.html

Pirates find proper way to crack Vista’s activation schema http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/03/0622230

More audiobook publishers drop DRM: Will Audible follow suit? http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/03/more-audiobook-publi.html

Nine Inch Nails uploads new album on Torrent sites http://torrentfreak.com/nin-uploads-new-album-on-torrent-sites-080303/

Fan-funded music http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13526_1-9882091-27.html… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 669: Wikileaks got a gun

EPISODE 669

Comcast hits the snooze button http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9879848-7.html

FCC may do-over Comcast Net Neutrality hearing due to presence of paid Comcastards http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/27/fcc-may-doover-comca.html

EU slaps Microsoft with $1.35 billion fine http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9880256-7.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7266629.stm http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080226-heavy-fine-looms-in-ongoing-microsofteu-tussle.html

Wikileaks gets legal help after domain name deletion http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9880958-38.html

Google disaster: Comscore reports awful January http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/2/2008/2/google_disaster__comscore_reports_awful_january

Apple planning iPhone SDK … Read more

Comcast packs 'em in at FCC hearing

Comcast got an earful from critics at Monday's FCC hearing on the campus of Harvard Law School, but did the cable company manage to shut out some unsympathetic folks? That would seem to be the case--Comcast acknowledges that it hired people off the street to stand in line for the meeting, ostensibly just to save places for its employees. But some, apparently, also stayed for the hearing to take up some of the precious few seats and, presumably, displace Comcast foes.

Read the details at Portfolio.com: "Grassroots Support? Or Astroturf?"

Comcast hits the snooze button

Cable giant Comcast seems to have moved on from its anti-BitTorrent filtering, and now appears to be engaged in a fairly low-tech astroturf campaign--which one commentator has called a "Denial of Citizen attack."

The Federal Communications Commission held a public hearing at Harvard University yesterday, primarily to discuss the cable giant's widely criticized filtering of BitTorrent traffic.

According to a number of first person reports posted online, as well as eyewitnesses that this blogger has spoken to directly, Comcast packed the room with hired warm bodies, some of which were sleeping. In addition to ensuring that there'… Read more

Net pioneers trash Comcast's P2P traffic treatment

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Comcast has confessed to slowing down certain peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic, but is it being clear enough about what it's doing?

That's perhaps the key question that emerged by the end of a lengthy public forum convened by the Federal Communications Commission on Monday here at Harvard Law School.

While none of the FCC commissioners was willing to solidify an answer to that just yet, two MIT computer scientists on an afternoon panel accused the cable company of behaving badly on multiple levels.

Each drew on his experience with fundamental Internet standards-setting bodies. And each charged that … Read more

FCC chief grills Comcast on BitTorrent blocking

Update at 3:10 p.m. PST: CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Federal Communications Commission chief Kevin Martin on Monday targeted Comcast's contention that delaying peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic serves user interests, appearing to sympathize with the cable company's critics.

Through pointed questioning at a public hearing at Harvard Law School here, Martin, a Republican, seemed to be pushing a two-pronged agenda: Internet service providers like Comcast should be as transparent as possible about manipulating network traffic, and consumers should have the freedom to, in effect, get what they pay for.

But at the end of the event, which, all told, lasted … Read more

Rep. Markey: Don't turn BitTorrent into 'BitTrickle'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--At an unusual public hearing held away from Washington, D.C., federal regulators and a key Democratic congressman on Monday said they're investigating the Comcast vs. BitTorrent dispute and are ready to take action against network management practices that disrupt Internet users' experiences.

The remarks came at the start of a public hearing here, where the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to hear throughout the day from corporate, academic, and public-interest group representatives about what constitutes "reasonable" network management by Internet service providers.

That definition is important because it will help the FCC decide whether … Read more

BitTorrent firms: Comcast throttling is anticompetitive

BitTorrent and other companies that provide bulk file distribution lashed out at Comcast on Thursday, saying the throttling of peer-to-peer connections is a naked attempt to harm video services that compete with cable TV.

Comcast's throttling "not only affects BitTorrent but also affects the hundreds of companies that use BitTorrent technology," Eric Klinker, the company's chief technology officer, told reporters on Thursday. Klinker's comments come a day after Comcast defended the practice in a lengthy filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

While the BitTorrent protocol has long been used for piratical purposes, the company formed … Read more

Comcast cites John Dvorak in FCC filing--for being oh so very wrong

Technology columnist John Dvorak was cited by Comcast in its defense of BitTorrent throttling this week--but not in an especially flattering way.

The cable operator is trying to convince the Federal Communications Commission to leave it alone by way of background, invoking the we've-taken-major-risks and it's-a-dynamic-industry arguments. Here's an excerpt from its filing with the FCC on Tuesday, which I reformatted slightly for easier reading:

Given the widespread availability and use of broadband today, it is easy to forget that, as recently as 1995, only about 17.5 million U.S. adults accessed the Internet, and virtually … Read more