Comcast to cease file-sharing delays

PHILADELPHIA – Comcast Corp., cast in cyberspace as an enemy of Internet users who avidly share music, video and other large files, has extended an olive branch to the creator of a popular file-sharing technology.

Its deal with BitTorrent Inc., which invented a more efficient successor to such online file-sharing services as Napster and Kazaa, calls for the Internet service provider to find alternatives to delaying transfers based on the specific technology used.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, has been under federal investigation for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers after user reports of interference with file-sharing traffic were confirmed by an Associated Press investigation in October.

The company defended its practice, most recently at a hearing of the Federal Communications Commission in February where the issue was whether a service provider like Comcast has the right to control what types of Internet traffic it will let through, block or delay.

Comcast said it needed to clamp down on heavy users of Internet bandwidth so others wouldn’t be slowed down.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that while he was “pleased” that Comcast has reversed course, he remains concerned that the nation’s largest cable company isn’t stopping the practice now. Comcast gave itself until year’s end.

“While it may take time to implement its preferred new traffic-management technique, it is not at all obvious why Comcast couldn’t stop its current practice of arbitrarily blocking its broadband customers from using certain applications,” Martin said in a statement.

Martin said the FCC will remain “vigilant” to ensure consumers can access any lawful content online.

Consumer-rights groups say the FCC should still act to protect consumers against other “discriminatory” network-management practices.

“Any arrangements made now would not cover any future developments in blocking, throttling or filtering that any other companies may use,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge.

Consumer and “Net neutrality” advocates have accused Comcast of playing judge and gatekeeper for the Internet by secretly blocking some connections between file-sharing computers. They also accused Comcast of stifling delivery of Internet video, an emerging competitor to its core business.

“This deal is the direct result of public pressure, and the threat of FCC action, against Comcast,” said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press, a media reform group. “But with Comcast’s history of broken promises and record of deception, we can’t just take their word that the Internet is now in safe hands.”

Comcast did not specify how it would manage traffic in the future but said one option was to delay file transfers for the heaviest downloaders, regardless of the specific mechanism used, as the company has been doing.

Comcast said it also was monitoring Time Warner Cable Inc.’s experiment in placing explicit caps on the monthly downloads for new customers in Beaumont, Texas. Subscribers who go over their allotment will pay extra, much like a cell-phone subscriber who uses too many minutes in a month.

But Comcast may be wary about charging certain users more because of competitive pressure, especially after rival Verizon Communications Inc. said recently that such traffic is legitimate and that its FiOS network can handle the flow, said Harold Feld of Media Access Project, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

BitTorrent and the eDonkey protocol are used for about a third of all Internet traffic, according to Arbor Networks.

The vast majority of file-sharing is illegal distribution of copyright-protected files. But file-sharing is also emerging as a low-cost way of distributing legal content – in particular, video.