Only two countries in the world have ISPs actively blocking or interfering with BitTorrent transmissions: Singapore and the United States. Only one kind of ISP in both countries, though, is doing the blocking: cable. An independent test conducted by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Software Systems showed that Comcast and Cox are both currently interfering with BitTorrent despite recent public and regulatory outrage.
Comcast Not Attending FCC Hearing
Pick a clever intro: Comcast won’t be tarred and feathered willingly; Comcast is taking its ball and going home; Comcast can’t stand the heat and won’t be going near the kitchen; Comcast won’t lie in the bed it’s made; Comcast will just hold its breath till it turns blue.I like this one:Comcast to FCC: Screw you guys; I’m going home.
Comcast To Slow Net For Heaviest Users
Comcast CTO Tony Werner gets the last laugh on the most ardent BitTorrent users on his network, as the company plans to slow down all Internet traffic for them.
Comcast Working With BitTorrent
Taking a less heavy-handed approach than the outright blocking of BitTorrent traffic, Comcast announced the company has begun negotiating ways for simultaneous existence. The announcement comes at a time when Comcast desperately needs to diffuse public, regulatory, and legislative concerns about Network Neutrality.There’s also the Time Warner WiMax deal to think about.
Comcast Is Blocktastic
Here’s some news to make you feel icky all over: Comcast paid disinterested uninterested squatters and employees to fill up the room at the FCC hearing at Harvard Law. With supporters and ambivalent attendees taking up real estate 90 minutes beforehand, protestors were unable to enter the building.
Sound Bites From The Comcast Hearing
Yesterday’s FCC "hearing" to discuss Comcast’s interference with BitTorrent traffic was more "dogpile on the cable shill." Comcast chose executive VP David Cohen as the bullet-catcher/gauntlet-runner/sacrificial lamb, and Verizon sent its own executive VP, Tom Tauke, presumably for moral support.
Stakes Are High For Comcast Hearing
Cable is on course to be the next decade’s dial-up. With limited capacity, cable companies are in a pickle: manipulate network traffic like Comcast has been doing (which customers and perhaps the government won’t stand for) or go back to metered pricing, which is going back ten years in business model, like Time Warner has done, which customers ultimately won’t stand for, especially as more competition comes around.
Comcast Stands By Its Internet Filtering
Comcast has admitted that it intentionally slows down some traffic on its network, including music and movie downloads. The company said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission that slowing the transfer of music or video between subscribers sharing files is necessary to manage traffic flow over its network.
Forget About Comcast, eBay Buying AOL
If you can’t buy Yahoo, AOL could be a consolation prize for those who won’t be able to challenge Microsoft’s Yahoo bid. It’s not the company everyone thinks will buy it.
FCC Looking into Comcast
Back in November, we mentioned how Free Press and other groups wanted ISP/cable company Comcast brought before the FCC for the way the company imitated users on BitTorrent to terminate downloads. And now, the FCC will be looking into it—at least according to Chairman Kevin Martin, speaking at CES.