Comcast Blocks Internet and Public

“Honestly, I’m just getting paid to hold someone’s seat,” said one person attending the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing in Boston last week (on 2008-02-25). “I don’t even know what’s going on.”x30 The FCC called the hearing to investigate citizens’ complaints that Comcast, the nation’s second largest Internet service provider (ISP), was blocking BitTorrent traffic. But hours before the hearing started, Comcast was blocking the public—stuffing seats with its own employees, and with other persons that it paid to attend. As the hearing began, many interested citizens stood out in the cold, while some of the paid attendees in the hearing room took a nap. Comcast’s data blocking came to light in October last year with an Associated Press (AP) investigative report, where the AP could not transmit a copy of the Bible.x31x32 David Reed of MIT’s Media Lab also investigated and told the FCC what he found—that Comcast secretly forged reset data packets to disconnect users.x33 By blocking BitTorrent, Comcast hampers an on-demand video delivery method that competes with Comcast’s cable TV business.x34 Such blocking violates FCC net neutrality standards: that Internet users are entitled to the content, applications and services of their choice.x35 But while the FCC has adopted those standards, it has voided the long-standing, key net neutrality standard—that an ISP shall not favor or hamper a data packet based on who sent it, who owns it, or who will get it.x36 AT&T and Verizon have stated that they plan to jump through that loophole, and implement a sort of extortion scheme—charging content providers for priority data transmission, while slowing the data packets of those who don’t pay.x37x38 But Congress could head them off. Last month, Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS) introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008, to ensure net neutrality standards.x39 The bill now waits in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Click HERE to urge your Congressman to sponser the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.