Comcast threatens staff in P2P scandal
p2pnet news | P2P:- Comcast is apparently threatening to fire any staff member who talks to the media about its file sharing blockage fiasco.
The company has been trying to wriggle out of allegations it tampers with P2P traffic by saying it wasn’t actually blocking it, and only delaying it.
Now, “Management informed anyone that discussed this issue with any customer or press associate that it would lead to termination,” an anonymous “internal tier 2 tech support worker” has told Ars Technica.
It goes on:
One of the e-mails we saw came from the Manager/IP Support of one of Comcast’s regional call centers. “If a customer contacts us to inquire about this, please use the following talking points,” reads the e-mail.
“Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent,” the e-mail continues. “We respect our customers’ privacy and we don’t monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which web sites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.”
However, the EFF’s Seth Schoen says the foundation ran its tests which proved Comcast was, “forging TCP RST packets which cause connections to drop (a technique also used by Internet censorship systems in China).
The packets, “cause software at both ends to believe, mistakenly, that the software on the other side doesn’t want to continue communicating,” said Schoen.
Says Ars:
“Another Comcast employee confirmed to Ars that the ISP does use Sandvine to shape traffic. ‘I believe they implemented Sandvine to conserve bandwidth for many reasons,’ the employee told Ars on the condition of anonymity. ‘Number one, to improve the integrity of the network for Comcast Digital Voice call quality and for more HD channels. The second reason is to conserve bandwidth from data providers (Cogent, Level3, and AT&T) and basically to save money’.”
Also See:
blockage fiasco – Unlocking the Comcast handcuffs, October 22, 2007
Ars Technica – Comcast to employees: talking about blocking P2P can get you fired, October 28, 2007
cause connections to drop – Comcast impedes hi-speed file sharing, October 20, 2007
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