Comcast Appeals FCC Sanctions Over P2P Throttling

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 4, 2008 - 11:06am.

Washington - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV company and second-largest broadband ISP, on Thursday appealed sanctions levied against it by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the company's throttling of customers' peer-to-peer traffic to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Comcast is arguing that, since FCC rules did not specifically prohibit its practice of blocking file-sharing traffic, "the Commission's action was legally inappropriate and its findings were not justified by the record," according to a statement published by The New York Times.

The FCC did not fine Comcast, but did require that the company make disclosures and change how it manages its broadband network.

"Comcast's appeal is predictable -- the cable giant has a long history of appealing any decision it doesn't like," said Ben Scott, policy director of advocacy group Free Press.

"The future of the Internet is too important to let Comcast tie it up in legal limbo. Congress should act now to pass Net Neutrality laws that clear up any uncertainty once and for all."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/3n2ri (N.Y. Times Bits blog)

http://snipurl.com/3n2pk (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.comcast.com