Net neutrality may not resolve Comcast vs. BitTorrent

Comcast's recent efforts to throttle file transfers that use the BitTorrent protocol have led to a renewed call for Congress to enact stiff Net neutrality laws.

Pro-regulatory groups including Public Knowledge have circulated press releases saying the episode demonstrates the "need for Net neutrality legislation." A Comcast-related post on DailyKos was titled "Why we need Net neutrality." Comcast, BitTorrent, and the phrase "need Net neutrality" appear in roughly 10,000 Web pages indexed by Google.

But even some supporters of new laws--which would enact antidiscrimination regulations aimed at broadband providers--are now reluctantly conceding that the proposals that have been circulating in Congress for more than a year may not do much to stop Comcast. (The company, a cable operator and broadband provider, has been sabotaging some peer-to-peer file transfers, which dramatically slows them down, although the file tends to be delivered eventually.)

Carole Handler, a partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner in Los Angeles who has written about Net neutrality and is now in favor of such regulations, says "the language is such that there is definitely some wiggle room in both bills." Handler was referring to bills that have been considered, but not approved, by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Harold Feld, senior vice president for the Media Access Project, which lobbies for Net neutrality laws, is also skeptical about whether Rep. Ed Markey's legislation would do much. If Comcast announced, "'We are absolutely going to prohibit peer-to-peer on our network or even manage our network so when we reach some unspecified capacity restraint, we're going to start messing with everybody's BitTorrent uploads, but it'll be totally random...' that is arguably permissible under the Markey bill," Feld said.

One reason for this is the wording of the language that the House of Representatives considered. Lawyers think of it as the network management exception: it allows a broadband provider to implement "reasonable and nondiscriminatory measures" in order to manage its network, as long as the company doesn't discriminate "between content, applications, or services offered by the provider and unaffiliated providers."

According to Comcast, reasonable network management is all it's doing. "Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise," spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told CNET News.com. "We engage in reasonable network management to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience, and we do so consistently with FCC policy."

Fitzmaurice was referring to the Federal Communications Commission's 2005 broadband policy statement, which describes expectations that broadband providers will allow their users to view sites, run applications, and connect devices to the network as they wish. Crucially, it also contains an exception for "reasonable network management."

To make matters more complicated, most of the gray areas can be found in the earlier Markey legislation. The Senate counterpart, called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act and reintroduced in January by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), is more specific. It doesn't contain broad immunity for network management, a legal shield that broadband operators argue is necessary.

It's not clear whether that potential murkiness will be resolved in a new version of the legislation, which Markey is expected to introduce during the next few weeks. An aide, who declined to be identified since the bill isn't yet final, told CNET News.com that the language--including the exception for network management--will probably not be significantly different.

When asked whether Comcast's conduct toward BitTorrent would be prohibited under the original bill, the aide said the clearest answer is "maybe." In any case, the bill's authors want to leave it up to an "expert agency," presumably the FCC, to decide whether a company's conduct in a particular situation was both "reasonable" and "nondiscriminatory," the aide said.

Until then, whether Comcast would be reined in by the two existing proposals remains, literally, an academic question. University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Christopher Woo is one of the most vocal academic critics of extensive new Net neutrality regulations, which would typically be enforced by the FCC. Woo says that Comcast's conduct is "in a gray area," and it's hard to say exactly how either existing proposal would treat it. A "natural reading" of both bills, he added, is that Comcast's network management techniques would not pass muster because they're "discriminating on the basis of the application"--in this case, BitTorrent.

Another academic is more emphatic. Columbia Law School Professor Tim Wu, a proponent of Net neutrality regulations, said it's clear that neither of the proposals would allow the sort of activity Comcast is engaged in. "What Comcast is doing is 'application discrimination'--they are choosing one application and treating it worse than others," he said. "Nothing in any of the Net neutrality bills allows this."

CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report

[directorblue]

Guys, it's actually very simple...

Rules might be as simple as:

* Prioritization of packets must not be done by inspecting source or destination IP address, TCP application stream, etc.

In other words, TCP/IP!

directorblue.blogspot.com/2007/10/comcasts-world-without-network.html

[directorblue]

Guys, it's actually very simple...

Rules might be as simple as:

* Prioritization of packets must not be done by inspecting source or destination IP address, TCP application stream, etc.

In other words, TCP/IP!

directorblue.blogspot.com/2007/10/comcasts-world-without-network.html

[inachu]

Time sensitive data

A week doesn't go by where comcast interrupts my data connection.
Doesn't matter if it is a live video feed over the internet or playing some internet based game like warcraft. Time and time again comcast is making me feel like I am paying for something that is acting like dialup when in fact it is an ALWAYS ON connection to the internet.

I consider this not to be 99% uptime availability.
It apppears to be more like 75% uptime availability. I will be switching soon to FIOS.

[inachu]

Time sensitive data

A week doesn't go by where comcast interrupts my data connection.
Doesn't matter if it is a live video feed over the internet or playing some internet based game like warcraft. Time and time again comcast is making me feel like I am paying for something that is acting like dialup when in fact it is an ALWAYS ON connection to the internet.

I consider this not to be 99% uptime availability.
It apppears to be more like 75% uptime availability. I will be switching soon to FIOS.

[fafafooey]

Liberals don't want regulation of the Internet, except when they want it

Can't have it both ways...

Either the government regulates it or it doesn't. Let the government regulate one little thing about it, and you are opening up a whole can of worms...

But the myopic liberals don't care - they want to make it a political issue now, rather than having a long term view of things. Hypocrites.

[fafafooey]

Liberals don't want regulation of the Internet, except when they want it

Can't have it both ways...

Either the government regulates it or it doesn't. Let the government regulate one little thing about it, and you are opening up a whole can of worms...

But the myopic liberals don't care - they want to make it a political issue now, rather than having a long term view of things. Hypocrites.

[GrandpaN1947]

Go somewhere else

Yes, it is simple. Under new net neutrality laws we have the option to use another provider. When hundreds of thousands of Comcast users take their business elsewhere Comcast will get the message and certainly regret doing what they are doing. I know I am happy I am not a Comcast subscriber now that they voluntarily give private information out and selectively throttle bandwidth. I've expressed my opinion in a way that really counts.

[GrandpaN1947]

Go somewhere else

Yes, it is simple. Under new net neutrality laws we have the option to use another provider. When hundreds of thousands of Comcast users take their business elsewhere Comcast will get the message and certainly regret doing what they are doing. I know I am happy I am not a Comcast subscriber now that they voluntarily give private information out and selectively throttle bandwidth. I've expressed my opinion in a way that really counts.

[OneWithTech]

Why is Bit Torrent even an issue?

The main issue here is not Bit Torrent. It's not any application
wether it be computer or web based. It the management of Data
streamed on private networks that commonly agree to allow this
data to flow free with respect to it's users.

So how the hell does anybody need to stray away for the basics
of what is needed. A frickn' child just hung herself while the
neighbors that killer her are sitting in there house and not in Jail
because of the vague language that deals with an issue like this!

WHY...Same frickn' reason as net neutrality. Nobody wants to
handle the main subject here which is the transfer and abuse of
data on the networks. How hard is this?

1. Laws that deal with the transfer of data

2. Laws that deal with the abuse of data

I personally believe its a "big lack of knowledge" on Congress's
part to just let the system be pulled from all angles to the point
where it's just easier to "not deal" with it than to "deal" with it.

How about Congress does what its good at, get the techies from
the hill to get together and create a "Special" panel; and DEAL
WITH THIS NOW.

Justin G
Tech01.net

[OneWithTech]

Why is Bit Torrent even an issue?

The main issue here is not Bit Torrent. It's not any application
wether it be computer or web based. It the management of Data
streamed on private networks that commonly agree to allow this
data to flow free with respect to it's users.

So how the hell does anybody need to stray away for the basics
of what is needed. A frickn' child just hung herself while the
neighbors that killer her are sitting in there house and not in Jail
because of the vague language that deals with an issue like this!

WHY...Same frickn' reason as net neutrality. Nobody wants to
handle the main subject here which is the transfer and abuse of
data on the networks. How hard is this?

1. Laws that deal with the transfer of data

2. Laws that deal with the abuse of data

I personally believe its a "big lack of knowledge" on Congress's
part to just let the system be pulled from all angles to the point
where it's just easier to "not deal" with it than to "deal" with it.

How about Congress does what its good at, get the techies from
the hill to get together and create a "Special" panel; and DEAL
WITH THIS NOW.

Justin G
Tech01.net

[ordaj]

If a provider advertises a certain speed

If a provider advertises a certain speed then they should be held to that. Bitorrent client or not.

Maybe the law could be written to say that the providers need to provide a minimum speed at all times.

And if they advertise that, they need to provide it. Maybe this will also get them to bump up the speed, too.

[ordaj]

If a provider advertises a certain speed

If a provider advertises a certain speed then they should be held to that. Bitorrent client or not.

Maybe the law could be written to say that the providers need to provide a minimum speed at all times.

And if they advertise that, they need to provide it. Maybe this will also get them to bump up the speed, too.

[fredmenace]

Tricky, but not impossible

While I'm all in favor of net neutrality as a general concept, and opposed to Comcast and others' practices in this regard, it can be tricky to implement such laws without impacting necessary activities, and omitting network management provisions would not be practical.

First, many could agree that the way to deal with customers over-use of the network to the extent of impacting other customers would be to throttle their total bandwidth, but not pay any attention to the source/destination, the protocol it's running under or the content of the traffic. That is, Comcast need not even be aware it's BitTorrent traffic, just that it's a lot of traffic in a given period of time that exceeds the customers' service plan.

Providers should thus write plans that explicitly set out how much traffic can be transferred and in what time periods - plans that are reasonable and flexible enough to work for everyone even if many users exploited them to the maximum. Such plans would be a bit more complex than current plans, but at least the would be both workable and honest. They should also notify the customer each time the customer's traffic is throttled in some way, and the reason why. The practice of selling "unlimited" service that is not actually unlimited should be forbidden, as should "hidden" throttling where the customer is not informed it is happening.

But another issue is dealing with network attacks (denial-of-service attacks, botnet traffic, spam/phishing, viruses/worms, break-in attempts, etc). An over-broad Network Neutrality bill could essentially outlaw networks' ability to fend off these menaces to the internet, which I assume they are continuously fighting to a degree far greater than most customers would ever suspect. And dealing with these certainly DOES require being specific about source/destination addresses, protocols, ports, content, etc.

I am not certain exactly how one would phrase a bill which allows the kind of necessary network management while forbidding discriminatory behavior, but that is a challenge even if the intentions are good.

One approach might be to require reporting to a clearinghouse any "attack" or "abuse" incident from a non-customer that warrants intervention (ie, a DOS or spam attack or break-in attempt); for abuse by customers to meet explicit guidelines in the customer agreement before intervention can take place and for the service provider to notify the customer of how and why their traffic was limited in each case; and to limit the nature of abuse that can legally be written into customer agreements. This latter part would be essentially what we are thinking of as "Network Neutrality legislation".

So it would be OK to carve out exceptions for network management, but they must be very specific to prevent discrimination unless the activity is actually abusive of other people or of the network (DOS/break-in attacks, cons, scams, bulk mail not in accordance with CAN-SPAM, etc.), rather than a side effect of the traffic volume needed for an otherwise possibly legitimate activity, such as file sharing, in which case the more general customer provisions regarding excessive bandwidth would come into play, and, again, the customer would have to be informed in advance of what those limits are, and kept informed each time specific interventions occur.

[fredmenace]

Tricky, but not impossible

While I'm all in favor of net neutrality as a general concept, and opposed to Comcast and others' practices in this regard, it can be tricky to implement such laws without impacting necessary activities, and omitting network management provisions would not be practical.

First, many could agree that the way to deal with customers over-use of the network to the extent of impacting other customers would be to throttle their total bandwidth, but not pay any attention to the source/destination, the protocol it's running under or the content of the traffic. That is, Comcast need not even be aware it's BitTorrent traffic, just that it's a lot of traffic in a given period of time that exceeds the customers' service plan.

Providers should thus write plans that explicitly set out how much traffic can be transferred and in what time periods - plans that are reasonable and flexible enough to work for everyone even if many users exploited them to the maximum. Such plans would be a bit more complex than current plans, but at least the would be both workable and honest. They should also notify the customer each time the customer's traffic is throttled in some way, and the reason why. The practice of selling "unlimited" service that is not actually unlimited should be forbidden, as should "hidden" throttling where the customer is not informed it is happening.

But another issue is dealing with network attacks (denial-of-service attacks, botnet traffic, spam/phishing, viruses/worms, break-in attempts, etc). An over-broad Network Neutrality bill could essentially outlaw networks' ability to fend off these menaces to the internet, which I assume they are continuously fighting to a degree far greater than most customers would ever suspect. And dealing with these certainly DOES require being specific about source/destination addresses, protocols, ports, content, etc.

I am not certain exactly how one would phrase a bill which allows the kind of necessary network management while forbidding discriminatory behavior, but that is a challenge even if the intentions are good.

One approach might be to require reporting to a clearinghouse any "attack" or "abuse" incident from a non-customer that warrants intervention (ie, a DOS or spam attack or break-in attempt); for abuse by customers to meet explicit guidelines in the customer agreement before intervention can take place and for the service provider to notify the customer of how and why their traffic was limited in each case; and to limit the nature of abuse that can legally be written into customer agreements. This latter part would be essentially what we are thinking of as "Network Neutrality legislation".

So it would be OK to carve out exceptions for network management, but they must be very specific to prevent discrimination unless the activity is actually abusive of other people or of the network (DOS/break-in attacks, cons, scams, bulk mail not in accordance with CAN-SPAM, etc.), rather than a side effect of the traffic volume needed for an otherwise possibly legitimate activity, such as file sharing, in which case the more general customer provisions regarding excessive bandwidth would come into play, and, again, the customer would have to be informed in advance of what those limits are, and kept informed each time specific interventions occur.

[tagno25]

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Quote{
According to Comcast, reasonable network management is all it's doing. "Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise," spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told CNET News.com.
}

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2007/11/28

[tagno25]

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Quote{
According to Comcast, reasonable network management is all it's doing. "Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise," spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told CNET News.com.
}

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2007/11/28

[cybervigilante]

Monstercast needs competition

Comcast sucks like their Big Brother twin, AOL.

I think Cox is doing it, too, though, but by blocking ports. I've never been able to make port forwarding work on my local Cox.

I had Comcast back east. They sucked then. Too bad big operators have such a monopoly in most areas. That's the problem - monopoly. Deal with that and the problems go away. I had billing problems with the phone company before they were broken up, and they wouldn't do anything. Years later, After they were broken up and had competition, I had another billing problem - but This Time they were eager to solve billing problems. When companies can't lord it over you they become much more reasonable.

[cybervigilante]

Monstercast needs competition

Comcast sucks like their Big Brother twin, AOL.

I think Cox is doing it, too, though, but by blocking ports. I've never been able to make port forwarding work on my local Cox.

I had Comcast back east. They sucked then. Too bad big operators have such a monopoly in most areas. That's the problem - monopoly. Deal with that and the problems go away. I had billing problems with the phone company before they were broken up, and they wouldn't do anything. Years later, After they were broken up and had competition, I had another billing problem - but This Time they were eager to solve billing problems. When companies can't lord it over you they become much more reasonable.

[guerojose]

Delay equals denial

"Delaying" packet delivery is the same as denial of service, period. It just shows how collectively ignorant Comcast is as an ISP, that they think it's fine if the data gets there 'eventually'. They obviously still view the entire internet world to be made up of people browsing websites; if your favorite porn site takes another half second to display a page, who cares, right?

Actually, BitTorrent isn't even the most susceptible to this "delaying" tactic; usually the content still gets to the user. Of greater concern to me is other time-sensitive data, such as online gaming, VOIP, videoconferencing, etc.

I personally experience repeated connection drops when gaming on Comcast. Games are increasingly using the P2P model, where you're no longer connecting to some company's dedicated server, but rather hosting your own connection for peer systems. Without fail, after about 5 minutes of hosting such a game, Comcast's crack network analysis tools view me as some pirate file-swapper, and drop the connection. You can't simply delay packets and expect applications to function. And good luck to anyone trying to explain the problem to their "technical support".

Comcast: Find some other way to limit bandwidth use. I don't mind having a cap, but tell me clearly what it is, and then leave my damn connection alone!

[guerojose]

Delay equals denial

"Delaying" packet delivery is the same as denial of service, period. It just shows how collectively ignorant Comcast is as an ISP, that they think it's fine if the data gets there 'eventually'. They obviously still view the entire internet world to be made up of people browsing websites; if your favorite porn site takes another half second to display a page, who cares, right?

Actually, BitTorrent isn't even the most susceptible to this "delaying" tactic; usually the content still gets to the user. Of greater concern to me is other time-sensitive data, such as online gaming, VOIP, videoconferencing, etc.

I personally experience repeated connection drops when gaming on Comcast. Games are increasingly using the P2P model, where you're no longer connecting to some company's dedicated server, but rather hosting your own connection for peer systems. Without fail, after about 5 minutes of hosting such a game, Comcast's crack network analysis tools view me as some pirate file-swapper, and drop the connection. You can't simply delay packets and expect applications to function. And good luck to anyone trying to explain the problem to their "technical support".

Comcast: Find some other way to limit bandwidth use. I don't mind having a cap, but tell me clearly what it is, and then leave my damn connection alone!