Comcast Flips, Flops Way Around Throttling Lawsuit Now says the FCC does have authority over them....
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Flips-Flops-Way-Around-Throttling-Lawsuit-95984 A federal judge in California has granted Comcast's request to suspend a lawsuit in California over their traffic shaping practices until the FCC has finished their investigation. Ironically, while Comcast has argued on the federal level that the FCC lacks the authority to punish them, they're arguing in California that the FCC does in fact have that authority, making these localized lawsuits unnecessary. From Comcast's filings in California: This issue – i.e., the reasonableness of a broadband provider’s network management practices – has, however, been firmly placed within the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), an administrative agency whose authority to regulate internet broadband access companies’ services is well-established. Yet earlier this month Comcast insisted the FCC had no authority over Comcast's network management, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen even going so far as to hint that they'd sue the agency should they try to prove otherwise: "The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the Comcast customer experience) to be enormously successful," Cohen says. "Bearing these facts in mind should obviate the need for the Commission to test its legal authority." While initially denying the practice, Comcast currently throttles upstream BitTorrent traffic for all users 24/7 using forged TCP packets. This tactic will be scrapped at the end of the year in favor of hard 250GB caps, increased DMCA enforcement, and targeted throttling. It's unlikely that the FCC's investigation into Comcast will end with anything more than a wrist slap over transparency (or the lack thereof) and a small fine. ******************************* * POST TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ******************************* Medianews mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
