Interesting!!
F.C.C. Chief Backs Sanctions Against Comcast Over Blocking
Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said on Friday that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, should be sanctioned because it interfered with the Internet connections of users who wanted to exchange files with each other.
Mr. Martin’s recommendation is a strong statement in favor of network neutrality, the idea that Internet access providers like Comcast should not be allowed to favor some uses of their networks over others. Internet companies like Google and free speech advocates have backed this approach.
The cable and phone companies that provide most of the nation’s Internet service have argued that such rules are not needed. They have said they should be free to run their networks as they see fit, and that there had been no cases of problems with such discrimination.
Comcast’s practice of slowing the use of BitTorrent, a method of trading video, music and software files, provides such a case.
Mr. Martin’s recommendation, which will need to be approved by the full commission, would not impose a fine. But it would force Comcast to change its practices and disclose what it did in the past.
The commission wants to set a standard that will make it difficult for an Internet provider to discriminate against users based on what they want to do online.
“The Internet is based upon the idea that consumers can go anywhere they want and access any content they want,” Mr. Martin said. “When they show they are blocking access to some sort of content, they have the burden to show that what they are doing is reasonable.”
Comcast argues that its approach is legitimate, and that the commission does not have the authority to impose any sanctions.
Companies that offer content over the Internet have worried that without such rules, the Internet access providers might chose to provide better service to some companies — perhaps those that pay for preferred treatment — than to others. Many are particularly concerned that cable and phone companies, which are in the pay television business, will choose to inhibit the growth of free video over the Internet.
Other Internet experts say that in reality Comcast is simply trying to compensate for the limited capacity of its network. On Internet connections delivered over cable systems, there is much more capacity for users to receive information than to send it.
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