NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The real issue in the Comcast case
Too much of the discussion about Comcast has focused on side issues, non-issues, and emotionalism. It doesn't matter than Comcast is using RSTs, for example, but most of the non-technical commenters claim this is some sort of human rights violation. The thing that matters is the end, not the means. Here's the relevant portion of Comcast's TOS: "/b. Prohibited Uses of HSI. You agree not to use HSI for operation as an Internet service provider, a server site for ftp, telnet, rlogin, e-mail hosting, "Web hosting" or other similar applications, for any business enterprise, or as an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network."/ They obviously have BitTorrent seeds nailed, because that's a "similar application" to an ftp server. The FCC says you can run any application you want, but Comcast says explicitly that you can't. That's the conflict. The fact that Comcast ensures you can't seed BitTorrent at a decent rate by the means they employ is totally beside the point, as are any claims about secrecy, deception, all-you-can-eat or guaranteed minimums that have never been guaranteed. Comcast is quite explicit about servers, and quite explicit about the fact that their advertised rates are maximums, not minimums. Once again, the FCC says you can run any application you want, and Comcast says you can't run servers. That's the conflict that needs to be resolved. RB -- Richard Bennett <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Too much of the discussion about Comcast has focused on side issues, non-issues, and emotionalism. It doesn't matter than Comcast is using RSTs, for example, but most of the non-technical commenters claim this is some sort of human rights violation. The thing that matters is the end, not the means.<br> <br> Here's the relevant portion of Comcast's TOS: <br> <br> "<em>b. Prohibited Uses of HSI. You agree not to use HSI for operation as an Internet service provider, a server site for ftp, telnet, rlogin, e-mail hosting, "Web hosting" or other similar applications, for any business enterprise, or as an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network."</em><br> <br> They obviously have BitTorrent seeds nailed, because that's a "similar application" to an ftp server. <br> <br> The FCC says you can run any application you want, but Comcast says explicitly that you can't. That's the conflict. The fact that Comcast ensures you can't seed BitTorrent at a decent rate by the means they employ is totally beside the point, as are any claims about secrecy, deception, all-you-can-eat or guaranteed minimums that have never been guaranteed. Comcast is quite explicit about servers, and quite explicit about the fact that their advertised rates are maximums, not minimums.<br> <br> Once again, the FCC says you can run any application you want, and Comcast says you can't run servers. That's the conflict that needs to be resolved.<br> <br> RB<br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- Richard Bennett </pre> </body> </html>
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