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Comcast to spearhead creation of P2P Bill of Rights

arstechnica.com — Comcast wants to partner with other ISPs to craft a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" that will apply to both users and to ISPs. But will these "user rights" have any input from actual users?

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 16, 2008

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  • Subriot, on 04/16/2008, -5/+94. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
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  • Kenard, on 04/16/2008, -1/+871. You have a right to an attorney.
    2. You have the right to download at 1 KB/s or 1% of your purchased bandwidth (whichever is less)
    3. You have the right to upload content approved by your ISP.
    and so on.
  • shootdashit, on 04/16/2008, -1/+30yeh, there's no reason to trust this in my opinion.
  • funchords, on 04/16/2008, -2/+23Today, 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. 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.

    It takes a special kind of arrogance for a company that sells Internet Access to team up with another company that sells Content Delivery and together decide what rights and responsibilities that the world's Internet users should have.

    As in its earlier "deal" with BitTorrent, Inc., Comcast's announcement today doesn't change any of the facts it faces: in 2006, it assured Congress that network neutrality laws were not necessary, saying it would not "deny, delay, or degrade" its customers in order to deal with traffic congestion. Within a year it was caught secretly doing exactly that! Even after a long string of deceptive and deflective statements and tactics, Comcast continues to degrade their traffic today.

    As was the case in the BitTorrent "deal," neither Comcast Corporation nor Pando Networks represents the millions of customers and other members of the Internet community who were impacted when Comcast secretly launched its anti-P2P attack.

    Today's announcement comes less than 48 hours from the US Federal Communication Committee's public hearing at Stanford University. There, the FCC is scheduled to hear from two panels of experts followed by two hours of public testimony on the Comcast incident specifically as well as similar industry practices in general.

    No doubt we will soon see Comcast and Pando Networking executives start to explain why today's "deal" signals that Network Neutrality regulation is not needed in the Broadband Marketplace.

    Robb Topolski
  • billpyle, on 04/16/2008, -1/+17***** Comcast
  • SniperGX1, on 04/16/2008, -1/+17Never trust Comcast. Ever. Even if you think they are dead shoot em twice more just to be sure.
  • nusuni, on 04/16/2008, -2/+17It's a trap! (where's ackbar when you need him?)
  • RocketGib, on 04/16/2008, -0/+15Input from actual users?
    Nah, only the ones Comcast plants in the FCC hearings.
  • Gryph1, on 04/16/2008, -0/+11Corporations making laws! What could go wrong there?!
  • bullsfan03, on 04/16/2008, -0/+11(see below) :P
  • Depthfunction, on 04/16/2008, -1/+10More like
    You have the right to be sued by the RIAA.
    You have the right for Comcast to terminate your service if you use P2P too much.
    You have the right for Comcast, the RIAA, and the government to monitor your P2P use.
  • fyreboltx, on 04/16/2008, -0/+7We've had Insight Communications for nearly a decade but Comcast took over this January... and I'm quite sick of them already. I get more service interruptions and for some reason, even though Speedtest shows my speeds are being way higher then before... uTorrent says otherwise. But I get to pay more now for some mysterious "improvements"! Woopie!!!

    *BTW, this my 3rd attempt at trying to post a comment (seriously)... because my internet keeps dying. I wonder if Comcast is behind this... T_T
  • RoboDonut, on 04/16/2008, -1/+8The government doesn't have any reason to get involved.
  • inactive, on 04/16/2008, -1/+7Comcast will treat us like we have dailup if they get their way.
  • SolidSnak, on 04/16/2008, -0/+6***** the RIAA
  • inchrnt, on 04/16/2008, -0/+5no thanks. not unless they rename it "bill of rights for us to screw over the consumer" which is what this is.
  • hoodedrobin, on 04/16/2008, -0/+5Know Your Rights by The Clash.

    Download it.
  • VcrMan, on 04/16/2008, -0/+5Does the post office have a "Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" regarding the contents of certain mail I may choose to send or receive? How's an ISP any different?
  • AresDiggs, on 04/16/2008, -1/+6Oh ***** you.
  • benplaut, on 04/16/2008, -1/+5No, not laws. These are your _rights_!! They give you _freedom_!!
  • diggrim, on 04/16/2008, -0/+4I download and share Linux distros on P2P!
  • bbliss17, on 04/16/2008, -0/+4I am not real sure about all of this! I don't trust Comcast after the torrent issues. They are going to screw us all over! I pay for the internet and I will do what I want on the internet. The internet is the last free speech we have in this country. File-sharing will live forever!
  • cidman2001, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3This should be an interesting load of crap....
  • Denzuko, on 04/16/2008, -7/+10Good thing to read, its about time to, though I'm weary because they where the ones that wanted to kill p2p.
  • inactive, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3They have no choice but to put on a happy face, the fcc was about to nail them with major fines so this is a scapegoat. Its probably to divert attention from the real under workings at comcast. I bet they realized if enough trouble was started , an investigation would be done to show what they are really up to far worse than throttling.
  • heynow21, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3In other words they want to collude with the other big players to throttle P2P connections so they don't look bad doing it all alone.
  • SolidSnak, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3I'm still not sure as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for my torrents...
  • tankiller, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3i'm confused. comcast was the most outspoken isp to block p2p traffic and now they want a p2p user bill-of-rights? dude what gives??? i'd scream trap but what the ***** do they have to gain by doing this???
  • inactive, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3***** me some ***** posts this picture every day - keep up.
  • kooftspc, on 04/16/2008, -1/+4***** THE RIAA
  • Almadiel, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2We probably won't be happy with whatever policy they decide upon, but I for one prefer any clearly stated policy to them just doing whatever they want on a whim.
  • gossipninja, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2they seem to be doing this due to network congestion. The problem there is that they oversell their lines way to much. I understand they are gonna oversell their lines (to make the price affordable) but they oversell way to much, all the while increasing speeds and not really increasing the backbone. They keep rolling out "faster" speeds so they can use it as a marketing ploy to beat dsl or other competition. When I had 3mbps cable (comcast/roadrunner) I got cut off years ago due to "overusing" my "unlimited" connection. Since then I moved to 3mbps DSL, I use it much more, and they dont care, they even contacted me a few months back and helped me SAVE $20 a month by going with naked dsl (no phoneline).Naked dsl has been great, i still get free incoming calls, and have a landline for emergencies, since i do not make outgoing calls, i dont care its 10c a minute.
  • aimhelix, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3"The arrangement is yet another example of how these technical issues can be worked out through private business discussions and without the need for government intervention." - those bastards.
  • gapingass, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3I like chicken I like liver, meow mix meow mix plz deliver!!
  • cidman2001, on 04/16/2008, -2/+4and the RIAA!
  • bjornski, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2So you can use P2P, if you use our software, which w can remotely uninstall and monitor for illegal content.

    Yeah, I'll sign right up for that.
  • eqtitan, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2To bad a simple search on the internet can yield free Comcast internet service...
  • darksideownedu, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2seriously, the only reason the RIAA cares so much when people share music is because it's hurting them, not the artist. The artist sees a few cents from each CD sold, if that. All the money actually goes to the "Record Label", so if you want to support the artist, go to a concert. Still, don't pay money for the CD's, it just keeps these corporations alive and gives them money for the lawyers that will debate away our network rights.
  • Ossuary, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2Ha! Like letting the fox guard the hen house...
  • DeathfireD, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2from this article I'm under the impression that Comcast wants to make their own easy to manipulate network to maintain p2p traffic and possibly filter out unlawful content. Personally the first thing I think Comcast should do is just stop ***** around and make things clear. How much bandwidth do we have if its not unlimited. Are they going to keep traffic shaping our protocols? The second thing I think Comcast should do is to stop traffic shaping and throttling the network. Even now, after all these rumors about them changing their ways, they are still shaping bittorrent traffic and crippling legal programs from working. The third thing I think they should do is start upgrading the pipes and head ends for their network to support fast speeds like the overseas networks have. They need to start supporting at least 40mb/s. They keep claiming its because of old cables that we cant get these speeds. So go out and start wiring up some fiber for god sakes. We all know they have the money to do this.
  • linksus, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3You have the right to STFU!
  • AresDiggs, on 04/16/2008, -2/+4then don't buy/use their product...
  • Hypersapien, on 04/16/2008, -0/+21 You have the right to sit down, shut up, and take what we give you.
    2 You have the right to follow any arbitrary rules we decide to make up in the future with a smile on your face.
    3 You have the right to never complain about the fact that you have no choice in cable internet providers.
  • DryMaltExtract, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2Why do businesses think they have a right to cut off a consumer for using what they were sold?
  • optoomistic, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2i hate comcast

  • SLockhart, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Someones getting their hopes up.
  • DeathfireD, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1It's not the ISP's job to patrol/filter what it's people are downloading and browsing on the web. That's a major disregard for net neutrality. It's the site owners job to do the filtering.
  • bjornski, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Corporations defining your "rights"? What could go wrong there?!
  • bjornski, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Without the threat of FCC intervention, they never would have come to this "agreement".
  • Jammerdelray, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Comcast should be the last one to spearhead any p2p rights!
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