Fergie's Tech Blog

Comcast: We Need to Play Internet Traffic Cop

Brad Stone writes on the New York Times' "Bits" Blog:

Comcast, the second largest Internet service provider in the country, is making the controversial and aggressive case that Internet service providers should be allowed to serve as traffic cops on the Internet.

In an 80-page filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, the company says it has a right to clamp down on the use of peer-to-peer file sharing programs on its network to preserve the smooth flow of bits to and from all its customers. The filing was in response to an F.C.C. complaint from network neutrality groups in November after the Associated Press revealed that Comcast was stopping some customers from using BitTorrent, a file sharing program often used to swap copyrighted copies of songs and movies over the Internet.

The F.C.C., in its 2005 Internet Policy Statement, said that consumers are entitled to run the applications and online services of their choice. But in the last footnote on the last page of that important document, the F.C.C. allowed for some blocking based on “reasonable network management.”

Comcast appears to be pinning its argument on that phrase.

posted by Fergie @ 2/13/2008 08:50:00 PM