FCC To Investigate Comcast's Bittorrent Blocking
The FCC announced that it will investigate complaints against Comcast for disrupting BitTorrent traffic. Then again, it wasn't a formal announcement, it was in response to a question posed by Consumer Electronics Association's CEO Gary Shapiro in an interview before a live audience during the big electronics expo. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," is what FCC Chair Kevin "Pretty Boy" Martin said exactly. "Sure" is not a word one uses to make a strong statement. He may have just been playing to the crowd. C'mon, it's CES, he knew if he said otherwise he could find a bunch of geeks sitting on his car in the parking lot looking to "reformat his harddive," if you know what I'm saying.
FCC to Probe Comcast Data Discrimination [AP]
(Photo: AP)
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Comments:
Isnt this the same guy that was promising ala carte cable a while back? WHat ever happened to that anyway? I'd actually spring for cable (something I consider a luxury) if I could pick & choose.
No, no... he's serious, all right. He's an ex-phone company guy, and likes to fight against the "evil cable monopolies" so they don't overtake the phone companies in subscribers or influence. (See [www.broadbandreports.com] for details on the issue.)
Since the last attempt at direct regulation of cable industry failed, this is his latest attempt at knocking the cable companies down a peg or two.
@forgottenpassword: It's a good idea... in theory. But in reality if you make alacarte exist they'll just raise the price of everything instead of getting 135 channels for $50/month you'll get 5 channels for $50/month.
I really hope he does, as it stands there's millions of people who don't have a choice in service. While I think he should focus his work on innovation and competition, I'll take investigating a horrible company all the same.
"reformat his harddive," if you know what I'm saying.
(chuckling) That's an amusing mental picture...
What a total con. FCC works for the telecom's.
The telecom's including AT&T would love to get a cut of the data distribution business that is already free.
You can already fix this problem easily for all computers on your network (Windows or otherwise). Google the phrase comcast bittorrent fix, and get a DD-WRT compatible router (WRT54G, La Fonera, Buffalo whenever they're allowed to sell again) - input the command from the fix page into your Linux router and bam! No more problems.
I was skeptical, but tried it and watched my upload go from 2-3kb/s on a good day to 115kb/s.
Congress has reacted by launching an investigation into the FCC's abuse of one of their favorite campaign cash cows, Comcast. Millions of consumers can complain about a company and Congress will simply grant it more monopoly power. One company complains that a regulatory agency wants it to follow the rules, and Congress will leap into action to crush that agency. Ain't it great to live in America!?
Fuck the FCC, they cant come to an agreement on sirius/xm merger agreement cause they are all paid off by the NAB and lobbyists of that group, and not to mention the bullshit that they wont rule ala carte cable or make sure douches like rupert murdoch cant assimilate all the news and paper outlets.
My money is on "playing to the crowd". Who the hell makes an announcement like that at an electronics show? My money is also on the FCC Chair going through the revolving door [en.wikipedia.org] and being on the Comcast board of directors in a few years.