Reply #14: Tivo, a Comcast competitor can use a lot of bandwidth

[Born Free]

Tivo services include the capability of downloading movies and shows, and also to share some recordings with other Tivo systems over the internet. All this is legal, each Tivo has a serial number that is placed in the file that Tivo can track down anyone illegally sharing copywrited material. In other words , you can send your Tivo produced recordings of copywrited material to a limited number of Tivo systems, but if they show up anywhere they should not be, Tivo will shut your system down. I don't think home movies have the restrictions of copywrited material. In addition to the Tivo, Comcast has another competitor that uses the cable, it is VOIP and Comcast has been known to throttle that as well to make their own phone service look better.

Even with file sharing , not all of it is illegal, anyone that is active with a linux system will use a lot of downloading, some via bit torrent to keep their software as up to date as possible. My system updates every day, there is always something new. Furthermore some movie rentals are now using bit torrent. Here's an interesting quote from Slashdot:

"It's been widely reported by now that Comcast is throttling BitTorrent traffic. What has escaped attention is the fact that Comcast, like the Great Firewall of China uses forged TCP Reset (RST) packets to do the job. While the Chinese government can do what they want, it turns out that Comcast may actually be violating criminal impersonation statutes in states around the country. Simply put, while it's legal to block traffic on your network, forging data to and from customers is a big no-no."

It is the best interest of Comcast to limit the use of their system so they can sell more ( reminds me of the Jimmy/Tammy Baker over selling the PTL ) , and limiting competitors is always make good financial sense even if it is not legal/moral. However they will never admit to that, it always easier to demonize the "HOGS" and blame it all of a bad bunch of greedy "hogs" that abuse it and ruin it for every one else. Better yet if they can convince the general public these "hogs" are doing illegal stealing and who knows maybe even helping the terrorists!