Comcast Corp., under federal investigation for interfering with the traffic of its Internet subscribers, said Tuesday it wants to develop a "Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" for file sharing.
The announcement expands on Comcast's new policy toward file-sharing: It said last month that rather than singling out such traffic and blocking some of it, the company will move toward a system that treats all types the same.
File sharing is mainly used to illegally swap copyright works like movies, but it's also emerging as a cheap way to distribute legal video. One of the companies in this business, Pando Networks Inc., is joining Comcast and supporting the "Bill of Rights."
The document would codify "best practices" for Internet providers to deal with file-sharing traffic, which can place substantial loads on the networks of cable companies. It would also clarify what controls consumers should have over peer-to-peer (or P2P) file-sharing applications on their computers. Some of these applications are often designed to run in the background, and give the user little insight into what they're doing or how much resources they're using.
Unfortunately for Comcast, they have a big problem on their hands.
I pay about $65 a month for unlimited, very fast internet. I want ALL of the internet at the speeds that I've been advertised. When Comcast was caught interfering with bit torrent traffic earlier, they were dangerously close to treading into areas that would cause them to lose their "common carrier status". What that means is, is Comcast MUST treat all traffic on it's networks equally, and without filtering, and it enjoys immunity from lawsuits.
That's why you don't see ISP's and telecommunications companies being sued for kiddie porn, illegal software, and all sorts of other ills on their networks.
When Comcast did this, they were going against those rules, and could have thus, lost its immunity from those lawsuits.
Here's what I do:
I run Ubuntu Linux at home, use an encryption program for most everything I do (PGP, Stunnel, etc) and try to use open source programs whenever I can. I've finally gotten to the point where I simply don't want to deal with the bullshit from Microsoft anymore. Vista was the final straw for me in a 20 year career of dealing with the quirks of their operating systems.
What's even better, is that all my hardware seems so much snappier and the software is almost all free. Although the only program I am currently running is World Of Warcraft. In case you're wondering, I've got a 70 warlock, 60 shaman, 60 mage, 60 hunter, 60 rogue, 54 warrior, and on down the list.
I'm on the Vek'nilash server, but that's all the info I'll be giving out. :)
But what's important here is for people to understand the things that companies are up to and to protect themselves from the whims of leaders of business that think they can do whatever they want simply because they have a monopoly.
Keep an eye out, the FCC is already investigating Comcast for this and other issues they've had. I doubt anything will happen to them other than a fine, but it's better then nothing.
Travis
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