Re: [PLUG] Comcast spoofs on network to block P2P

[zuzu <sean.zuzu@gmail.com>]

some follow-up...

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/20/how-the-ap-busted-co.html
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=BUSINESS&ID=565106942100767897
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1859/125/
http://isen.com/blog/2007/10/comcasts-president-interactive-division.html

How the AP busted Comcast for blocking BitTorrent
Posted by Cory Doctorow, October 20, 2007 9:14 AM

In the wake of yesterday's revelation that AP had discovered secret,
anti-BitTorrent software running on Comcast's network, a followup
story explaining the clever detective work the AP did in rooting out
this little shenanigan:

    An AP reporter attempted to download, using file-sharing program
BitTorrent, a copy of the King James Bible from two computers in the
Philadelphia and San Francisco areas, both of which were connected to
the Internet through Comcast cable modems.

    We picked the Bible for the test because it's not protected by
copyright and the file is a convenient size.

    In two out of three tries, the transfer was blocked. In the third,
the transfer started only after a 10-minute delay. When we tried to
upload files that were in demand by a wider number of BitTorrent
users, those connections were also blocked.

    Not all Comcast-connected computers appear to be affected,
however. In a test with a third Comcast-connected computer in the
Boston area, we were unable to test with the Bible, apparently due to
an unrelated error. When we attempted to upload a more widely
disseminated file, there was no evidence of blocking.

Link (via Isen)

Update: And check out thehilarious stupid lies that Comcast
Interactive's president told Information Week!


#3 posted by Anonymous

I'm commenting anonymously because I used to work at Comcast. Their
biggest fear is commoditzation of their internet product, which costs
about 10% of the paying price to provide, the enormous profits
offering a story to tell Wall St. in the face of dwindling TV
subscribers as they run to DirecTV and FiOS. Let's face it- their
pipes are, by '09, going to be pure 1's and 0's ....and how is that
really worth any money? If you're using torrents to watch the new
season of Curb, Dexter, et al, you're not paying the price for a month
of dreary old HBO or Showtime. They know that all the McAfee antivirus
and portal videos in the world will never be perceived as value add,
(because the AOL model is dead) and they are terrified that we will
all wise up, a la Earthlink municipal WiFi, and decide that the
pricing on broadband should be subjected to the same liberation as
long distance a few years back, and we pay what it's worth: a 1-200%
markup, not a 7-900% markup.
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