[291] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Net Neutrality Violation Smoking Gun? Comcast
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Fri Oct 19 13:18:05 2007
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Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:53:18 -0700
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Net Neutrality Violation Smoking Gun?
Comcast Blocking File Sharing of the Bible?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000321.html
Greetings. According to an Associated Press item replete
with an unusual amount of technical details, AP testing of file
sharing, using a controversial media file known as "The Bible" (yes,
that Bible), has strongly suggested that Comcast is using blocking
technologies to impede file sharing even of limited size, completely
copyright-free materials. You can read the details yourself
( http://tinyurl.com/yu3apc ).
What's particularly noteworthy about this story is that Comcast is
so far refusing to explain what's going on -- further fueling
suspicions that something far more insidious than unintentional
technical glitches are involved. In fact, the sporadic nature of
the reported results suggests that the particular (in this case,
religious!) content wasn't specifically the target of "traffic
shaping" or blocking, but rather that certain classes of traffic in
general are being distorted in various ways by this ISP, probably by
technologies that Comcast insists they "rarely reveal" for various
reasons. Uh huh.
It also demonstrates how end users can usefully contribute toward a
better understanding of the state of the network and operational
network neutrality (please see: "Proposal for Breaking the Internet
Network Neutrality Deadlock"
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000299.html ) for more on
this aspect).
Additional information and clarifications regarding the Comcast
situation in particular would of course be welcome.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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