Dave Horvath
15 Nov 2007 12:41
A California man has filed suit against the cable giant Comcast claiming that they have engaged in unfair business practices by limiting download speeds for peer-to-peer traffic across their networks.
Jon Hart bases his lawsuit on an investigation by the Associated Press that reported, "Comcast actively interferes with attempts some high-speed Internet subscribers (make) to share files online." Additionally, he brought up claims by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a radical activist group that rallies against things from DRM to anti-piracy movements, of Comcast engaging in practices similar to that of the Chinese government censoring the Internet.
A PDF of the lawsuit is available for viewing.
Hart argues that Comcast's own marketing states lightning fast speeds and unfettered access to all the Internet has to offer. He claims that they have not lived up to their part of their own marketing by intentionally throttling "certain Internet applications" that he regularly uses.
The lawsuit seeks class action status and brings up the fact that Comcast's actions, in light of its marketing claims, constitute an unfair and fraudulent business practice under California consumer laws.
In a statement, Comcast replied with, "We never prevent peer-to-peer activity or Block access to any peer-to-peer applications, but rather manage the network in such a way that this activity does not degrade the broadband experience for other users."
Source:
PC World