Gawker
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blogging for dollars
How Comcast Bought Its Way Into Boing Boing's Good Graces
Until today, if edgy digerati blog Boing Boing mentioned Comcast, it was with a sneer that was practically house style. Suddenly Boing Boing has fallen in love with the "bumbing, evil" cable guys. Why? Money. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Baroness: I'm really over reading Boing. For every one cool thing there's 10 others about some pet fascination (steampunk!) beaten to... 4 Responses | Other threads
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nsfw
Comcast Porn Goof Gives Super Bowl Viewers an Eyeful
Everyone's pretending to be shocked about the 10-second clip of porn spliced into Comcast's Tucson-area broadcast of the Super Bowl. Why? That's how Comcast butters its bread.
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By Owen ThomasComment by tigolbitties: can someone explain to me why in porns, especially amateur porns, do dudes wear socks? (i am in no way... 7 Responses | Other threads
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startups
The fire sales to come
Silicon Valley has its own portfolio of toxic investments that no one likes to talk about. The office parks along 101 are littered with the living dead, startups running on fumes of hope and trickles of venture capital. What their future looks like: The $5 million asset sale of Radiance Technologies, a digital-video file-delivery company, to Comcast. An asset sale means that the buyer gets the technology, patents, and servers, while investors are left with the liabilities. Radiance's VCs, who sank $26 million into the company starting in 2000, are unlikely to see much from the purchase. Play that scenario out hundreds of times, and you get a glimpse at what's coming for investors and entrepreneurs. No wonder even sunnily optimistic VCs are losing hope. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by eze: are those undertones of encouragement and sympathy i detect, owen? 2 Responses | Other threads
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mythbusting
Rejoice — your tube is big enough after all
Comcast's announcement of a bandwidth cap for home users beginning in October has raised a recurring fear: Is the Internet being overloaded? It's not a new worry. Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe forecasted a meltdown in 1995. But our growing adoption of BitTorrent downloads and YouTube-like streaming clips must be straining the pipes, right? More »
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Comment by Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: Am I reading the above conversation right? Is Comcast moving to a TV over IP and metered IP access resulting... 5 Responses | Other threads
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telcos
Comcast will pop a cap on your bandwidth in October
250GB, or "125 standard definition movies," will be Internet service provider Comcast's new cap on monthly bandwidth usage for downloads, according to a release from the company — which confirms some rumors and shoots down others. Which is 200GB short of what cranky customer Dave Winer has been reported to use. Better send some cupcakes to your friendly Comcast support representatives on Twitter for overage indulgences. [DSL Reports]
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By Jackson WestComment by jeffjenn: Well, I guess this pretty much ends that whole plan to stream HD movies (Netflix, Hulu etc)to the mainstream's TV... 1 Responses | Other threads
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i hate it here
850 new reasons for San Franciscans to hate AT&T
So that's what those things are. The box in the photo holds equipment for AT&T's U-verse cable service. The grumpy guy is David Crommie, president of the Cole Valley Improvement Association. He's torqued because AT&T got an exemption from environmental review requirements to install up to 850 of these things around the city. You'll also see smaller green boxes on city sidewalks — those are Comcast's. Verizon manages to bury all its equipment underground. The CVIA has stalled AT&T's plans, but the San Francisco Daily Post reports that "AT&T is now expected to reapply for exemption." (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
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By Paul BoutinComment by ExtendedRockyMontage: Ah, so it's essential to have an environmental review for installing bike lanes but not these ugly ass Ma Bell... more » | Other threads
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telcos
Comcast backs away from 20-minute delay
A Comcast spokesman contacted an IDG reporter whose report bubbled up to the New York Times today: "Comcast has made no final decisions on how to manage network congestion, despite news reports Wednesday that it will slow traffic for heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of peak network use." More likely, said the spokesman, the heaviest network traffic users will be slowed for a minute or two at a time whenever parts of Comcast's network get congested. Comcast has been forbidden by the FCC from blocking applications such as BitTorrent outright. But stupid quote of the day comes from the guy at Public Knowledge: "If there was competition, could you slow down your best customers?" No, you could charge them more. (Chart by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems)
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By Paul BoutinComment by artbrodsky: And why, pray tell, is it a "stupid quote" to say that Comcast is taking advantage of what is, at... more » | Other threads
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broadband
Dial-up users cling to slow Internet
Broadband growth has fallen by half in a year. Cable and telephone providers of high-speed Internet signed up 887,000 net new customers last quarter — half of the number of signups in the same period last year. Because of market saturation, companies are focusing more on selling faster, more expensive services. Nationwide, cable companies have 35.3 million broadband customers while phone companies have 29.7 million. AT&T is still the nation's largest Internet service provider with 14.7 million customers, followed by Comcast with 14.4 million customers. It's good news for AOL and EarthLink, which are profiting from a core of dial-up subscribers reluctant to embrace DSL or cable Internet. [AP] -
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unintended consequences
How the FCC killed BitTorrent's promising business
When Comcast was caught blocking file sharing on its network, the Federal Communications Commission seemed to strike a blow in favor of peer-to-peer startups everywhere by fining the cable company. Observers assumed that the FCC decision would open the field for file sharing to turn into a legitimate business. But for BitTorrent Inc., a San Francisco startup seeking to commercialize the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, the move against Comcast led to layoffs instead. The ruling may ultimately prove fatal to the company. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @funchords: "As for BitTorrent's content-delivery network, it was premised on the notion that BitTorrent would negotiate with ISPs to get... more » | Other threads
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deals
DailyCandy deal sweet for Pittman, bitter for employees
Selling DailyCandy to Comcast for $125 million, Bob Pittman earned a 36x return on his 2003 $3.5 million acquisition of the company. Pretty sweet. But investors who bought into the company during its last funding round in 2006, and any employees who joined the the email newsletter for women since then, didn't do nearly so well. As VentureBeat reminds us, that round set DailyCandy's value as high as $140 million. Any shareholders who bought in then are going to lose money on the deal, unless they had a liquidation preference which allowed them to get their money back. That money, in turn, would have come out of the hide of employees, whose common shares would be diluted by shares issued to make the investors whole. So while DailyCandy's sale will renew respect for the one-time, one-eyed AOL boss Bob Pittman's dealmaking abilities — we heard Comcast wanted to pay just $75 million — working for him seems to be a suckers' bet. -
confirmed
DailyCandy sold to Comcast for $125 million
In selling DailyCandy to Comcast for $125 million, Bob Pittman has notched a 36x return on the email newsletter he bought in 2003 for $3.5 million. We had heard that Comcast was trying to get it for $75 million, marking sharp dealmanship by Pittman to get the higher price. The long-rumored deal has done much to restore Pittman's reputation as a businessman after the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger. [Silicon Alley Insider}
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By Owen ThomasComment by Patricia2: @Shadowlayer, it's not fashion but everything, in multiple cities including kids. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Comcast earns $632 million, laughs in your face
Someone forgot to tell Comcast that by slowing down BitTorrent and only appointing a single Twitter Appeasement Specialist, the company had banished itself to the long tail of failure. The world's most hated ISP reported $632 million in earnings on $8.55 billion in revenue. Wall Street analysts had expected closer to $700 million, but investors kicked the stock upwards anyway. Traders beware: Silicon Valley now has a hundred influencers who will blog Comcast out of business in Q3. Dump now! (P.S. Firefox doesn't think "influencer" is a word.)
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By Paul BoutinComment by BobDope: Maybe we can tell the AFA Comcast doesn't hate gays as much as Fred Phelps does and they can boycott... more » | Other threads
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network neutrality
Debate over FCC's regulatory role heats up ahead of Friday vote on Comcast
On Friday, the five commissioners of the FCC are set to vote on whether Comcast should be punished for interfering with traffic over its network. Comcast won't have to worry about fines — at worst, the Internet service provider will only have to agree to stop the specific practice of blocking peer-to-peer BitTorrent traffic and disclosing to customers what network management it practices, which the the company already does. So why should you care? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by mrfomoco: Every time I see these guys, all I can think of is the Greek Council in 'Animal House'. ('Put Neidermeyer... more » | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Entitled, whiny white tech workers find new way to get prompt service from Comcast
I couldn't help but notice a trend in the New York Times report about bloggers and Twitter users who have gotten superior service from Comcast after complaining about the cable company online: They are all white. Brandon Dilbeck, William Pomerantz, Lyza Gardner: white, white, white. Oh, and all involved with the technology industry. And yet they all seem to be under the delusion that they are powerless and that no one listens to them. In fact, Comcast has assigned a white person, Frank Eliason, to listen to white people's complaints on Twitter and blogs full-time. Gardner seems like an especially noisome kind of white Twitter user — the one who will gladly talk behind your back when you're not listening, but then acts surprised when you overhear her: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by BambiDiomedes: This article is ridiculous on so many levels. I can't believe you are playing the "race" card. That's so preposterous.... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
DailyCandy is for sale, but Comcast might need more than $75 million
Former AOL boss Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures is rumored to have sold its popular email list DailyCandy to Comcast for $75 million. We're not so sure. DailyCandy is for sale — we hear Pittman's lieutenants have acted like absentee landlords during site's redesign — but that if sold, "it would be for much much more." Gossips have also suggested Yahoo as a potential buyer — all of which may well be noise issuing from the Pittman camp, meant to extract a higher price from Comcast.
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Comment by Matthew_Maurice: @EaterLover: By that reasoning it's "target demographic" is HUGE. Maybe it is worth a hundred million? more » | Other threads
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andrew cuomo
Politician threatens to sue Comcast for not fighting child porn the right way
Broadband provider Comcast is pushing back against New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo's demands to support his anti-child-porn campaign. Comcast and 16 other ISPs signed an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which maintains a blacklist of suspected illegal porn sites — but for Cuomo's office, that isn't good enough. They insist that in addition to blocking websites, Comcast must fall in line with Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Sprint, AOL and AT&T in shutting customers out of all or part of Usenet, the network of Internet-based discussion groups, and contributing funds to root out more child porn providers. It's not the most practical or even Constitutional approach, but a good move for headlines. Comcast has until Friday to respond to Cuomo's request to sign his code and kick in the cash. (Photo via Bloomberg)
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Comment by ThaiKitchen: Well, the battle for child pornography continues!... What about this article [tinyurl.com] whose title is: "Are you unwittingly violating child... more » | Other threads
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karin gilford
Yahoo Entertainment VP bolts for Comcast
When Scott Moore reorganized Yahoo's media business in April, we called VP Karin Gilford, head of Yahoo Entertainment, "the big winner." Now she's just another goner. Gilford has quit the company and will take a new job at Comcast. We admire Moore's ability to regularly crush the competition — In May, for example, Yahoo! News had 38.8 million users to AOL News' 29 million — but we wonder if Moore's shitkicking winniness might also crush his own reports. That Gilford joins a long list of Moore's reports who have suddenly exited the company doesn't do much to defend Moore's reputation. Former head of Yahoo Entertainment Vince Broady is gone. So is onetime Yahoo News editor Neil Budde. Yahoo Music boss Ian Rogers only gave Moore two days' notice when he left. Instead of running Yahoo Food like she used to, Deanna Brown is busy running Scripps Interactive to the company's notable profit. Here's an example of Gilford pitching Yahoo in happier days: More »
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Comment by ripopgome: This is good news for YHOO. Finally, get rid of some of the dead weight in the Ent org. What... more » | Other threads
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network neutrality
FCC chairman wants to give Comcast a good spanking
Comcast could be subject to an "enforcement action" if the regulators at the FCC vote on August 1st to approve chairman Kevin Martin's proposed punishment for improper network management policies by the Internet service provider. Meanwhile, the boastful buccaneers at The Pirate Bay want to develop universal network traffic encryption meant to make the entire Internet a samizdat free from government and telco prying eyes. [AP] (Photo by AP/Jeff Roberson)
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By Jackson WestComment by G2GdoB2B: I was reading about the download cap Comcast is supposedly going to impose of around 250GB/Month. In the article, [www.internetevolution.com]... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Comcast buys Movies.com
Comcast subsidiary Fandago will acquire Movies.com from Disney for an undisclosed price. Disney doesn't expect any layoffs as a result of the deal. [paidContent] -
politics
Google called "Robber Baron" by National Black Chamber of Commerce
The National Black Chamber of Commerce has weighed in against the partnership between Google and Yahoo, suggesting that by gaining control of Yahoo's search advertising inventory, it will create a single auction market for search ad placement and lead to higher prices. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by jackparsons: This is quite likely the worst astroturfed, faux-grassroots campaign I've ever seen. You always want to cultivate the impression that... more » | Other threads
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David Verklin
Meet the man who has to save cable
Ad money is flying onto the Web. While it hasn't hurt cable TV yet — that business is still seeing a migration of ad dollars from the broadcast networks — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevison, Charter and Brighthouse Networks are worried it could. So together, they've created Canoe Ventures, and hired ad-agency veteran David Verklin as CEO. His mission: Convince cable programmers like Walt Disney's ESPN or Viacom's MTV to adopt advertising technology that will automatically place cable commercials, like Internet ads are targeted today. More »
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Comment by G2GdoB2B: But I'm confused. What they are creating is something that goes against their revenues. Or are they being pressured by... more » | Other threads
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perks
Comcast CEO's family gets $300 million if he croaks in office
Had Comcast CEO Brian Roberts died during 2007, the company would have had to pay his heirs $60 million for five years of salary and bonus, a $223 million life-insurance payout and another $14 million in stock awards and other payments. Add it up and Roberts's heirs get a $298.1 million "golden coffin" if the Comcast CEO croaks in office. Roberts's 88-year-old father — Ralph Roberts, chairman of Comcast's executive committee — earns his family $87 millionifwhen he goes, too. Such "golden coffins," much like "golden parachutes" have been around as estate-planning tax dodges for years, reports the Wall Street Journal in an exposé, but until a new law 18 months ago, it was easy for companies to bury how much they would pay families after executive deaths "in the fog of proxy-statement language." No longer. (Photo by Bruno Girin)
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Comment by TaintEpithelials: I wonder if Twitter user @comcastcares could tell us how much of our monthly bill goes toward golden coffins, golden... more » | Other threads
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security
Comcast hackers say they used a Network Solutions exploit
"EBK" and "Defiant," the online monikers of the hackers who disrupted Comcast's online service, have gone on record about their exploits. They say that a hole in domain-name registrar Network Solutions' security let them change Comcast's registered address in domain records to "Dildo Room, 69 Dick Tard Lane." Network Solutions denies there was a vulnerability. [Wired]
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By Jackson WestComment by DJCarbon43: Yeah, but its NW. They are like the worst ever. Comcast will switch to a more competent reg hopefully more » | Other threads
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security
Hackers own Comcast homepage
Internet service provider Comcast had the comcast.net domain name server redirected to a server in Germany after hackers got control of the site's DNS entry with Network Solutions. For a portion of yesterday evening, the homepage read:KRYOGENICS Defiant and EBK RoXed Comcast
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online video
Netflix and Roku hope to avoid the curse of the set-top box
What makes Netflix's new living-room box for Internet video downloads different from all the other set-top flops? Everything. The price is low: At $99, it's much cheaper than the $229 Apple TV. It connects to regular TVs as well as HDTVs, and can stream video in variable quality depending on your Internet connection speed. And you can eat all you want from the buffet of available titles on Netflix, with movies available online that happen to be in your Netflix queue already lined up and ready to go. Hardware partner Roku has introduced it with a chipset that other manufacturers can license, and Netflix has a huge domestic subscriber base as potential customers. So what three things could doom this product to the same fate as every other Internet-video set-top? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Darascon: @sample032: Riiight, a "good" set top box. But adding all the stuffs to it essentially makes it a dedicated HTPC.... more » | Other threads
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network neutrality
Comcast lies to FCC about blocking file-sharing
Cable copmany Comcast assured the FCC that the company's "network management" practices that involved blocking file-sharing traffic only affected heavy users during peak hours. However, tests found that the Internet service provider blocks such traffic for a majority of users all day, every day, as does fellow ISP Cox. [Torrentfreak] -
acquisitions
Comcast acquires Plaxo, after unbearably long courtship
Months after rumors of its interest first surfaced, Comcast has officially bought Plaxo. Terms weren't disclosed, but we last heard that the price was rumored to be around $175 million. For now, Comcast is keeping Plaxo and its engineering team in place in Mountain View, giving the cable company a toehold in Silicon Valley. I briefly spoke to Plaxo marketing dude John McCrea, who outlined some possibilities for how Plaxo could apply social networking to Comcast's Web properties. John, sounds great, but I'd be happy if your engineers could just figure out how to connect my Comcast.net Internet ID with my Comcast.com billing account.
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By Owen ThomasComment by haggie: Two companies that will gladly screw over customers to make a buck. They belong together. Expect your private data to... more » | Other threads
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broadband
Comcast considering 250GB monthly cap on downloads
Internet service provider Comcast is considering instituting a 250-gigabyte monthly cap on downloads, according an anonymous source cited by BroadbandReports.com. Users would be allowed one month over the cap in a year. Any month after that, and the customer would be charged $15 for each 10GB in excess. No cap is expected for uploads. Cranky RSS guru Dave Winer, who admits to downloading an astronomical 450GB a month, would end up with a regular $300 surcharge on his Comcast bill. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by EdaAntlion: comment Now boarding ATA flight 666 with service departing Comcast every half hour to Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, Clearwire and points... more » | Other threads
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wireless
How Google yanked AT&T's chain
Negotiations to reform Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless-broadband startup, as a consortium backed by Google, Sprint, Comcast and others began as far back as January of this year. By mid-March the consortium had an outline of a deal that made Google the preferred software developer on the WiMax network. Today the consortium, operating under the Clearwire name, is expected to disclose that they are investing $3.2 billion in a nationwide WiMax network, which will eventually be able to deliver a 5-Mbps connection to cellphones and laptops. But what else was Google doing back in January? More »
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By WagCuriousComment by WagCurious: @ThatKid: I'm a filmmaker, not a journalist. I could never fill Jordan's very large shoes. But you can read my... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Sprint, Clearwire work seven-way deal to create new wireless-broadband startup worth $12 billion
Clearwire, the wireless data company started by Seattle-area cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, will be recontsituted as a new company valued at $12 billion backed by primarily by Sprint, but also by cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House, chipmaker Intel and Web search behemoth Google. McCaw will continue as chairman of the board at Clearwire and Ben Wolff as CEO. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse agreed to give control to the pair as part of the deal, to ease concerns that Sprint's core wireless business would conflict as the new company's services began to compete for voice and data customers. Sprint has encountered numerous problems with deploying Intel-developed WiMax, and there's still the issue of whether the company will sell Nextel after a $35 billion acquisition in 2005 went south.
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By Jackson WestComment by thelifter: Now both companies can suck and half ass their operations more efficiently. more » | Other threads
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your privacy is an illusion
FBI to Internet: Yeah, we'd tap that
Head honcho of the federales, Robert Mueller, let his fantasies run wild in hearings held by the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee on Wednesday:[G]ive us the ability to preempt that illegal activity where it comes through a choke point as opposed to the point where it is diffuse on the Internet.
With Comcast admitting to throttling file sharing traffic, AT&T promising to filter for copyright infringement, Google under fire for all sort of privacy concerns and the NSA already jumping our backbones, who isn't tapping that? (Photo by AP/Lawrence Jackson)
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By Jackson WestComment by Rususeruru: People to the FBI: You aren't spying on us? FBI to the People: No. People to the FBI: Then who is that... more » | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Comcast customer complains company invades his personal space by reading public messages
A Comcast customer in Pittsburgh is not amused that Comcast cares. As Twitter user gpk3, he wrote "Comcast sucks," causing Frank Eliason, Comcast's Customer Outreach manager who keeps tabs on Twitter to respond "Welcome to Twitter. How can I change your perception?" The customer was not amused, accusing Comcast of invading his "personal space." And by "personal space" he seems to mean "messages publicly available to the world on the Internet," causing a few Twitterers to come to Comcast's defense. The person I feel sorry for isn't Eliason, though he has to put up with a lot representing the company. No, it's Comcast shareholders, who are actually surrendering some of their hard-earned monopoly profits to pay someone to use Twitter. -
politics
Comcast, telcos ritually abused at FCC hearings in Palo Alto
Young San Jose resident Alex Polvi presented the least informed, but probably most typical argument for net neutrality in his public comment featured in this video clip from the rescheduled network neutrality hearings hosted by the FCC at Stanford today. But hey, even if he said "Internet" more than a dozen times, he didn't say "marketplace of ideas" or "fascism," like many of the other commenters. The people who should be most worried about the complex debate aren't free speech advocates or corporations, however, but big pharma. Listening to arguments for and against were a more powerful soporific than Ambien. Highlights from the seven hour session after the jump. More » -
comcast
Not even Comcast's Twitter-stalker can placate Dave Winer
Comcast has assigned a customer-service employee to monitor Twitter for the passive-aggressive whines of tech-savvy insiders. A tipster forwards us evidence of the Twitter-stalker in action in the screenshot below. Meanwhile, another sighting of this rare customer-service animal in the wild comes from bilious blogfather Dave Winer, best known for arguing about which obscure Internet technologies he invented. Yesterday he posted a rant about how the Internet service provider abruptly cut him off. (The cause: Software he wrote which inefficiently downloads Flickr photos en masse.) After Winer complained over Twitter, the stalker, a Philadelphia-based customer-service rep named Frank, reached out, but couldn't help. So Winer called Comcast's hotline for Internet miscreants and recorded the call (MP3). During that conversation, a Comcast rep threatened to shut down Winer's connection. "I asked if I could get this in writing," Winer reports. "He said no." More »
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Comment by blowdart: If Comcast keeps Winer of the internet they'll probably gain a legion of new grateful geek customers. more » | Other threads
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politics
Comcast chickens out of FCC hearings at Stanford
Superlawyer Lawrence Lessig won't have Comcast to kick around at the FCC hearing on network neutrality — the principle that broadband providers can't discriminate against certain kinds of Internet traffic — being held at Stanford tomorrow. The event was only scheduled after Comcast paid chumps to fill chairs at an earlier hearing at Harvard in an obvious effort to squelch debate. With Comcast working with BitTorrent and just today joining with legal file-sharing startup Pando to work on a "bill of rights" for file sharers and ISPs, the company is trying to make voluntary moves in an effort to stave off involuntary regulation. I was planning on attending, if only because it promised to be an entertaining nerdfight — now, I'm not so sure. Since public hearings are supposedly democracy in action, you tell me if I should bother buying a Caltrain ticket. More » -
file sharing
Sandvine reports $7 million first quarter loss
Canadian network equipment manufacturer Sandvine reported a $7 million loss for the quarter ending February 29th, the first "disappointing" quarter in the company's history according to CEO Dave Caputo. The company makes network management equipment such as the deep packet sniffers Comcast was accused of using to throttle file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. Caputo assured investors that the debate over ISP traffic management and network neutrality is "cooling somewhat." I'm not so sure — I'm expecting the rescheduled public hearings on Comcast's traffic management policies at Stanford next Thursday to be rather charged. Sandvine's stock is trading at a quarter of it's one year high.
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By Jackson WestComment by sample032: I say you put your money where your mouth is and short them. more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Bell Canada's peer-to-peer throttling mess
Bell Canada, the largest Internet service provider for our neighbors to the north, has admitted to using "deep packet sniffers" [Ed's note: Sounds intriguing, am assigning Melissa to look into these people] to throttle peer-to-peer protocol transfers such as BitTorrent downloads. Executives there obviously hadn't spoken to peers at national broadcaster CBC, which recently started legitimately distributing shows via P2P, as has American network NBC and musicians like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The company also throttled traffic from ISPs that buy bandwidth wholesale from the company. Net neutrality groups are lobbying Canadian officials to regulate Bell Canada into submission. But Minister of Industry Jim Prentice is opposed to any further regulation, and the Conservative Party-led government has been in favor or easing current regulations on telcos. Meanwhile, here in the states, Comcast has cozied up to BitTorrent and the FCC has proven more amenable to arguments in favor of net neutrality.
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By Jackson WestComment by raincoaster: Not only that, but downloading from peer to peer networks is LEGAL in Canada. Uploading is a different story, but... more » | Other threads
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file sharing
Comcast cuddles up to BitTorrent while still choking users
Cable and internet service provider Comcast, half of the local broadband duopoly here in the Bay Area, has promised to stop throttling traffic generated by users of the BitTorrent protocol. This comes in the wake of a mountain of bad press sparked by the discovery that Comcast was interfering with customers' file-sharing transmissions — including an AP reporter's entirely legal Bible download. In return, BitTorrent Inc. promises to optimize the company's client for Comcast's network. However, Comcast isn't showering away the stink; it's just applying deodorant. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Mossback: Actually, Jackson, you're wrong. Comcast doesn't "advertise that speed at that price with no notice of data restrictions," they advertise... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
FCC schedules "do-over" Comcast hearing at Stanford
The FCC has announced that it will hold a second hearing on "net neutrality" — the debate over whether broadband providers can favor some kinds of Internet traffic — at Stanford University on April 17 (PDF). We wrote back in February that FCC chairman Kevin Martin was considering a "do-over"; the FCC's first hearing at Harvard was deemed botched after Comcast was caught packing the room with seatwarmers hired off the street. Now, Comcast has to deal with a hostile crowd and Professor Lawrence Lessig, a strong proponent of net neutrality. Lessig v. Comcast at Stanford? Sign me up! More »
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Comment by Fidel on the Roof: I am so happy that this is going to be done again. more » | Other threads
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comcast
FCC chair "ready to act" against Comcast — so what is he waiting for?
Federal Communications Commission chair Kevin Martin reiterated the FCC's position on Comcast's file-sharing misdeeds. Giving a speech at Stanford Law School, Martin said the commission is "ready, willing and able" to take action against the company. But this is the exact same wording he used at the first net neutrality hearing at Harvard several weeks ago. The FCC remains "ready" — but it isn't doing anything. Mr. Martin, sir, as my grandmother would say: "Shit or get off the pot."
valleywag
San Francisco, 12:23 PM
Fri Jul 10
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