p2pnet news | P2P:- Arrogantly, Comcast didn’t trouble itself to turn up at all at the FCC public net neutrality at Stanford University —-

—- which was more than passing strange given it was largely for the meeting being called in the first place.

There was a, “huge turnout” at a February hearing in Boston into the company’s traffic shaping practices when, said SavetheInternet.com, “Hundreds of concerned citizens arrived to speak out on the importance of an open Internet. Many took the day off from work - standing outside in the Boston cold - to see the FCC Commissioners.

But, “when they reach the door, they’re told they couldn’t come in.”

That was because Comcast had hired people to hog seating space, as it admitted.

This time around, Comcast wasn’t there to hear network and protocol expert Robb Topolski (right), who originally blew the whistle on the company’s P2P traffic throttling actions, give evidence.

Comcast Corporation and Pando Networks, “announced that they will lead the industry to create a ‘P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities’ for users and ISPs,” Topolski told p2pnet on Tuesday.

“With an FCC hearing on Comcast’s anti-peer-to-peer practices scheduled for later this week, this is hardly a surprise. Once again, Comcast makes another sweetheart-sounding deal, but at the wrong time, and with the wrong sweetheart.”

Consumers were harmed when Comcast, “decided it would do something secretive and non-standard on the Internet,” CNET News has Topolski saying, referring to the company’s use of, “so-called reset tags” to interfere with the transfer of large files from P2P applications such as BitTorrent.

“The situation continues today. It has not stopped, despite all the wonderful agreements between BitTorrent and Comcast,” said Topolski.

“I’m a ham radio operator. And Comcast is jamming authorized communication (on the Internet). I ask that before you leave today you signal your intent to stop these interferences.”

FCC commissioners, “were particularly curious about the experience of Topolski and other network-management experts during the panel on ISP practices,” says the story, going on >>>

At its hearing in February, Comcast representatives had said that it “delayed” traffic from BitTorrent at times of heavy network congestion. But Topolski and others refuted those claims Thursday, saying that Comcast lied on two accounts.

One expert panelist said it’s clear that Comcast is blocking, not delaying traffic, with the use of reset tags. “It’s like making a phone call and you get a busy signal. Unless you call again, (the connection) won’t happen,” said Jon Peha, associate director of the Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking and a Carnegie Mellon University professor.

“I know their technical statements are plain wrong,” said Peha. “The fact that at this stage of the game we still don’t know very much about what they do is interesting in itself.”

Network neutrality advocates, “pushed the commission to adopt specific regulations prohibiting the discrimination of traffic,” said the San Francisco Chronicle, continuing:

“Led by Stanford law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who introduced the first panel of speakers, open-Internet backers said the Web must remain free to ensure consumer choice and technological innovation, which could be hampered by allowing operators to pursue arbitrary traffic-shaping rules.”

But the commission appeared split, says the story.

Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, “advocated a firm policy that describes which traffic shaping practices are unacceptable to the FCC.”

“It’s essential we maintain an open network,” the Chronicle has Adelstein saying. “It’s not only helpful for the economy but also for consumers, who have access to a wide array of services.”

Republican Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell, however, “sounded a cautious note about relying too much on regulation, which they said may do more harm than good,” it said, adding:

“Both seemed hopeful that the private sector could resolve the problem without regulation, as Comcast is trying to do by recently signing agreements with peer-to-peer providers BitTorrent and Pando.”

In Canada, Bell Canada, the country’s largest ISP, is the focus of similar charges for similar reasons.

There, industry minister Jim Prentice told consumers it wasn’t up to the government to solve their Net throttling problems.

Slashdot it!

huge turnout - Comcast paid seat hogs in FCC hearing, February 27, 2008
p2pnet - Comcast P2P ‘Bill of Rights’ No! Really!, April 15, 2008
CNET News - Absent Comcast in hot seat at FCC hearing, April 17, 2008
San Francisco Chronicle - FCC hears net neutrality arguments at Stanford, April 18, 2008
Net throttling problems - 3rd protester joins Bell ‘anti-throttling’ club, April 17, 2008

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