Consumerist
dmca takedown notices
Posts Tagged “
BitTorrent
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dmca takedown notices
Comcast has defended its BitTorrent blocking by saying it only does it when network congestion is high, but a new study finds that they're doing it basically all the time. [The Inquirer]
shady
Azureus: Other ISPs May Also Be Throttling BitTorrent
Azureus has released data that suggests that Comcast may not be the only ISP throttling BitTorrent, says TorrentFreak:A few months ago Azureus petitioned the FCC, which led to a FCC hearing in February. One of the complaints from the commission was that there is little data available on the scope of BitTorrent throttling, a gap Azureus now tries to fill by collecting data on the prevalence of TCP-resets among ISPs worldwide.More »
BitTorrent tracking site The Pirate Bay was raided by Swedish Police, and now the site claims they found evidence that the chief of police who called the raid was in the employ of Warner Brothers. [The Pirate Bay]
Trent Reznor's "free sample" music marketing experiment is a success. [Ars Technica]
net neutrality
Video Of Comcast's Opening Remarks During Net Neutrality Hearing With Seats Stuffed By Company Employees
net neutrality
Comcast admitted to paying its employees to sit in at a F.C.C. hearing on net neutrality at the Harvard Law School today, depriving angry protesters from their right to sit in those folding chairs. Despite the venue being filled to over capacity, keeping some people from entering, not everyone inside seemed appreciative of their privilege. One Comcast employee admitted on tape, "I'm just getting paid to hold someone's seat, I don't even know what's going on." According to SaveTheInternet.com, the Comcast employees, "arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep." The stacked audience's behavior was limited to wearing a yellow highlighter, sleeping during the proceedings, and loudly applauding when Comcast VP David Cohen got on the mic.
More »
Comcast Stacks FCC Hearing Seats With Sleepy Shills
Comcast admitted to paying its employees to sit in at a F.C.C. hearing on net neutrality at the Harvard Law School today, depriving angry protesters from their right to sit in those folding chairs. Despite the venue being filled to over capacity, keeping some people from entering, not everyone inside seemed appreciative of their privilege. One Comcast employee admitted on tape, "I'm just getting paid to hold someone's seat, I don't even know what's going on." According to SaveTheInternet.com, the Comcast employees, "arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep." The stacked audience's behavior was limited to wearing a yellow highlighter, sleeping during the proceedings, and loudly applauding when Comcast VP David Cohen got on the mic.
More »
bittorrent
Comcast: No Thanks FCC, Blogosphere Polices Us Just Fine
In the brief Comcast filed arguing that they doesn't need the FCC telling it how not to throttle its customers' internets, Comcast came up with a pretty special explanation:
The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.So after dissing on the relevance of blogs, Comcast turns around and says that it takes blogs seriously enough that they're a sufficient proxy for FCC regulation. The lawyer that came up with that one deserve a very big M&M cookie.
Comcast: The Blogosphere Will Keep Us Honest [IP Democracy] (Thanks to Ninja of the DC!)
Comments Of Comcast Corporation (PDF)
Comcast has quietly changed their terms of service following the BitTorrent backlash to protect their ass a bit more. [Ars Technica]
comcast
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. More »
file sharing
EFF Confirms Comcast Mucks With BitTorrent
The elite cyber-squad freedom fighters of the The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released findings today that Comcast does indeed meddle with peer-to-peer file sharing. They're also giving away some software you can install to test your own ISP. The FCC still has yet to respond to complaints and reports of Comcast's interference.
EFF Releases Reports and Software to Spot Interference with Internet Traffic [EFF]
net neutrality
Tell The FCC, Congress To Support Net Neutrality
Net neutrality advocates are gathering momentum to take Comcast to the woodshed for an old fashioned populist beating. Comcast believes that deliberately destroying connections to the popular communications protocol BitTorrent amounts to "reasonable network management," which the FCC permits. Advocates figure if they can't ride the net neutrality pony to Congressional passage now, it will forever lie dormant in the stable munching on BitTorrent packet hay. More »
net neutrality
Consumer Groups Ask FCC To Ban Comcast From Blocking Any Peer-To-Peer Activity
Advocacy groups and legal scholars filed a network neutrality complaint with the FCC today against Comcast, asking the government to issue a temporary injunction against the cable company that forces it to "stop degrading any applications. Upon deciding the merits, the Commission should issue a permanent injunction ending Comcast's discrimination." More importantly, the complaint asks the FCC to classify any blocking of peer-to-peer file sharing as a violation of the agency's Internet Policy Statement, "four principles issued in 2005 that are supposed to 'guarantee consumers competition among providers and access to all content, applications and services.'" More »
worst company in america
NIN's Trent Reznor Shared Files On OiNK, Compares iTunes To Sam Goody
Trent Reznor was a member of now-shuttered illegal file sharing website OiNK, and he's not afraid to admit it to New York Magazine:What do you think about OiNK being shut down?More »
Trent: I'll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn't the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me.
Are you a Comcast user? Try visiting torrentfreak.com. Let us know if you're allowed to see the page or if you get an error. A reader told us Comcast is blocking it but we want to check it out first. Update: looks like this is an isolated incident. Carry on.
liars
Damning Proof Comcast Contracted To Sandvine
Comcast told its employees to not comment when customers ask about recent reports in an AP article that it contracted BitTorrent sabotaging to a company called Sandvine, or to even discuss that a relationship exists between the two companies. Too bad that Barron's financial magazine reported back in April that the two are in bed together:
"Sandvine already counts top U.S. cable provider Comcast Corp (CMCSA) among its customers, Barron's said." - Easing network debate may aid Allot/Sandvine-paper, Reuters, Sun Apr 8, 2007
Here's the orginal Barron's article (subscription required): Here's How the Drama Over 'Net Neutrality End
Sandvine also posted the article in the press archives section on their very own website.
Oops. Hard to play the no comment game when the facts are already in print.
PREVIOUSLY:
LEAKS: Insider Tells Us There's Proof Comcast Contracts BitTorrent Sabotaging To Sandvine
Comcast's "We Don't Throttle BitTorrent" Internal Talking Points Memo
insiders
LEAKS: Insider Tells Us There's Proof Comcast Contracts BitTorrent Sabotaging To Sandvine
In the reports about Comcast's disruption of traffic between customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, it's alleged that Comcast outsources the traffic meddling to a third-party company called Sandvine. Publicly, and in an internal talking points memo leaked exclusively to The Consumerist, Comcast refused to comment on having any relationship with Sandvine.
A Comcast insider tells us, however, that in the Comcast trouble-shooting system there is a list of third-party vendors. Sandvine was on the list.
leaks
A Comcast employee supplied The Consumerist with the following internal email sent out to all the customer service staff at the Maryland call center. It's regarding recent reports that the cable company disrupts traffic between customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol:
Comcast's "We Don't Throttle BitTorrent" Internal Talking Points Memo
A Comcast employee supplied The Consumerist with the following internal email sent out to all the customer service staff at the Maryland call center. It's regarding recent reports that the cable company disrupts traffic between customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol:All,More »
You may get customers who are contacting us with regard to several articles which were published recently, accusing Comcast of blocking or otherwise filtering customers' Internet traffic. An in-depth AP story suggests Comcast is hindering our customers' ability to use BitTorrent, a peer to peer file sharing program. If a customer contacts us to inquire about this, please use the following talking points.
