Under P2P Fire, Comcast Builds Legal, Technological Defenses

[Xipe Totec]

Source: Information Week

Comcast’s concern that P2P services like BitTorrent will strain network capacity have led the cable giant to explore a number of legal and technological moves to keep peer-to-peer file-sharing to a minimum. You may recall that Comcast has been accused of violating federal regulations regarding “reasonable network management” by jamming users attempting to share files via the BitTorrent protocol over its cable modems. Net-neutrality activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation say that amounts to discrimination against specific applications. In the past, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said such moves were not admissible. BitTorrent CEO Ashwin Navin does not view this as a competitive struggle: “I’m very sympathetic to the predicament they find themselves in. Most ISPs sold more capacity than they actually have. In next 12-18 months, with the explosion in BitTorrent-enabled applications that are all going to be using that capacity, they’re going to have to really start to invest in their network.” But Comcast is taking two steps to deal with the predicament: it’s planning a major network upgrade and it’s offering its own video download service.


Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205917419

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This is worth repeating:

"Most ISPs sold more capacity than they actually have"...

[hobbit709]

1. "Most ISPs sold more capacity than they actually have"

Just like the airlines sell more seats than they have. They're hoping not everyone will show up at the same time.

[Xipe Totec]

2. It also reminds me of the movie The Producers

A scheme to massively oversell shares in a Broadway production, then purposely make a horrific flop, so that no one will ever audit its books, thus avoiding a payout and leaving Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom free to flee to Rio de Janeiro with the profits.

After an extensive search the now-partners find an unproduced play worthy of their efforts: Springtime for Hitler, a Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgaden, a work which Bialystock gleefully describes as "a love letter to Hitler," written in total sincerity by deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind.

Unfortunately for the protagonists, their attempt to make an unwatchable play backfires as, after initial dumbfounded disbelief, the audience finds LSD's beatnik-like portrayal of Hitler to be hilarious, and the play is a universally praised hit.

[BadgerKid]

3. Maybe the ISPs should offer vouchers, too.

At least the airlines implicitly admit it was their screw-up.