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Comcast sued over BitTorrent throttling

9 June 2008 0:14 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 14 comments

The broadband provider Comcast has been served with three class-action lawsuits this week for its former practice of throttling BitTorrent file transfers for some of its users.

Late last year, users from Comcast's 14 million broadband subscribers were outraged to learn that the provider was interfering with their file sharing traffic, most notably with torrents. The FCC then got involved and there have so far been a few investigations and public hearings into the matter.

The three lawsuits, filed in California, Illinois and New Jersey each claim that the company "misled consumers when it promised to offer unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer."

"Comcast's clandestine techniques are similar to those used by totalitarian governments to censor the use of the Internet," states the Illinois complaint.

"No doubt Comcast would characterize the behavior as illegal and malicious hacking if perpetrated by others on Comcast and its customers."

Permalink to this article | Topic: Lawsuits & Legislation

BitTorrent in trouble - one fifth laid off (7 August 2008)

EFF releases tool that hunts BitTorrent throttling ISPs (3 August 2008)

FCC set to punish Comcast for breaking net neutrality laws (27 July 2008)

New class action lawsuit against Comcast in Federal Court (23 July 2008)

FCC Chairman wants penalties imposed on Comcast (12 July 2008)

First annual P2P conference announced (9 July 2008)

Comcast tries to dodge fraud issue in P2P throttling lawsuit (9 July 2008)

Bell Canada has some explaining to do - to the public this time (23 June 2008)

Comcast increases Premium and Premium Plus upload speeds (14 June 2008)

U2's manager once again decries ISP's for not policing subscribers (4 June 2008)

Comcast puts 46 cable systems up for sale (30 May 2008)

Comcast invests in P2P streaming startup (20 May 2008)

Cox also throttled torrent traffic (15 May 2008)

Comcast considers official limits on downloads (7 May 2008)

We don't throttle P2P users, says AT&T (27 April 2008)

Comcast wants a P2P "Bill of Rights" (16 April 2008)

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Discuss this article!
lawndog (Member) 9 June 2008 2:27
ha ha, you money groubling big wigs are finally starting to get whats coming to you [ + quote]
DTN107 (Junior Member) 9 June 2008 3:01
Sweet Justice! Now if only Verizon Fios would hurry and expand. It would run Comcast out of business! [ + quote]
lawndog (Member) 9 June 2008 8:52
ah man Fios is awsome. I've had it for about 2 years now. Fast fast fast. And they have 3 levels of service, don't ask me what the band width is cause I have no clue, or what the levels are. I just got the cheapest, waited 2 months the called them with a fake complaint and they bumped me to the middle service for free. [ + quote]
BurningAs (Senior Member) 9 June 2008 10:16
Anyone know how we can all get in on the class action? [ + quote]
7thsinger (AfterDawn Addict) 9 June 2008 13:43
It's about time. I'll be watching this one. [ + quote]
c1c (Member) 9 June 2008 15:09
Im a concast customer in IL. I do notice they limit the upload speed on BT to 40k, downloads seem to be ok. I am waiting for another service to pop up. $60 a month for bad service is not good. I can't run BT and play xbox live at the same time. [ + quote]
mperagine (Member) 9 June 2008 18:16
Same for me in Pittsburgh. Waiting for Fios to reach me, Comcast is awful. [ + quote]
escalante (Member) 9 June 2008 18:22
Wow...I'm not gonna say "stop whining", but you guys in the states have it good. I'm on a 128 Kb/s connection and it costs $100 belizean dollars a month...that's $50 US. And that's the norm around here. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 11 June 2008 0:25
*Originally posted by escalante:* Wow...I'm not gonna say "stop whining", but you guys in the states have it good. I'm on a 128 Kb/s connection and it costs $100 belizean dollars a month...that's $50 US. And that's the norm around here. about a year ago I was payign 150 a month for 400MB worth of 200KBPS satitilte DSL, be thankful for you you got :P right now I get normal DSL for 60 a month at 200KBPS. [ + quote]
bratcher (Senior Member) 12 June 2008 13:56
*Originally posted by c1c:* Im a concast customer in IL. I do notice they limit the upload speed on BT to 40k, downloads seem to be ok. I am waiting for another service to pop up. $60 a month for bad service is not good. I can't run BT and play xbox live at the same time. My upload limit here in Houston starts at 200k then drops quick to around 45k for any uploads to Sendspace or Giganews. Yes Comcast is really trying to discourage uploading.... [ + quote]
Sontiago (Newbie) 12 June 2008 17:36
And let's not forget time warner announced they are now doing exactly the same thing but with a "we charge extra for each gig".. amazing.. :Let's hope people will put a stop to this crap and vote for net neutrality and move to other providers in droves. [ + quote]
loubat (Junior Member) 12 June 2008 20:49
Good news for Comcast users. :) http://gizmodo.com/5015669/comcast-incre...y-2x3x-tomorrow [ + quote]
bratcher (Senior Member) 12 June 2008 21:28
*Originally posted by loubat:* Good news for Comcast users. :) http://gizmodo.com/5015669/comcast-incre...omorrow I hope I see those higher upload speeds real soon. 45kb takes awhile on big files.... [ + quote]
DVDBack23 (Staff Member) 13 June 2008 19:29
*Quote:* *Originally posted by escalante:* Wow...I'm not gonna say "stop whining", but you guys in the states have it good. I'm on a 128 Kb/s connection and it costs $100 belizean dollars a month...that's $50 US. And that's the norm around here. about a year ago I was payign 150 a month for 400MB worth of 200KBPS satitilte DSL, be thankful for you you got :P right now I get normal DSL for 60 a month at 200KBPS. Thats expensive and slow, I feel for you zippy buddy :( [ + quote]