Los Angeles - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV company and second-largest broadband provider, has been sued by a California man who alleges the company's recently-discovered throttling of peer-to-peer traffic violates federal computer fraud laws, truth in advertising laws and its own contracts with users, Wired reported.

Several independent reports, from the Associated Press and others, have revealed that Comcast uses technology to deter some users at times from using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, and other applications like Lotus Notes.

Plaintiff Jon Hart's lawsuit is seeking class action status, and will ask the court to force Comcast to cease interfering with Internet traffic, and pay damages to all Comcast subscribers in California.

The suit alleges that, since Comcast promises fast connection speeds without limitation, its limiting of speeds in certain situations constitutes false advertising, and is also an unfair business practice.

"Comcast uses the latest technologies to manage our network to provide a fast, reliable broadband experience for all of our customers. We do not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent and do not alter Internet speed," the company told Wired in a statement.
 

Related Links:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/comcast-sued-ov.html

http://tinyurl.com/2jzsmw (PDF of complaint)

http://www.comcast.com