FCC Formally Rules Against Comcast's throttling of BitTorrents

Authored by Jay Baage on August 1, 2008 - 6:40am.

Washington, D. C. - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has concluded that some of the tactics used by Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) when managing its broadband network have been unreasonable in restricting Internet users who share movies and other materials.

In what has been called a precedent-setting decision, the FCC voted 3-2 to uphold a complaint accusing Comcast of violating the FCC's open-Internet principles by improperly hindering peer-to-peer traffic, according to Reuters.

"Subscribers should be able to go where they want, when they want, and generally use the Internet in any legal means," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement.

While the measure adopted by the FCC does not include any fines against Comcast, it does require the company to stop impeding peer-to-peer applications and tell the FCC how the practice has been used. Comcast also needs to be more open and notify customers about other network management practices it adopts in the future.

Comcast has argued that its network management practices are reasonable and that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce its open-Internet policy.

Related Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080801/media_nm/comcast_fcc_dc
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755765217903443.html
http://www.comcast.com/
http:// www.fcc.gov/