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Comcast sued over BitTorrent throttling

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 09 Jun 2008 12:14 User comments (14)

Comcast sued over BitTorrent throttling 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."

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14 user comments

19.6.2008 02:27

ha ha, you money groubling big wigs are finally starting to get whats coming to you

29.6.2008 03:01

Sweet Justice!

Now if only Verizon Fios would hurry and expand. It would run Comcast out of business!

39.6.2008 08:52

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.

49.6.2008 10:16

Anyone know how we can all get in on the class action?

59.6.2008 13:43

It's about time.

I'll be watching this one.

69.6.2008 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.

79.6.2008 18:16

Same for me in Pittsburgh. Waiting for Fios to reach me, Comcast is awful.

89.6.2008 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.

911.6.2008 00:25

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.

1012.6.2008 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....

1112.6.2008 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.

1312.6.2008 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....

1413.6.2008 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 :(

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