Comcast-BitTorrent Pact Not a Substitute for Net Neutrality
ars technica, March 27, 2008
By Eric Bangeman
The cable giant and the peer-to-peer innovator whose conflict triggered a renewed debate over Net Neutrality have announced that they will work together now, or at least adjust some of their rhetoric. The agreement between Comcast and BitTorrent, Inc., which is designed to make sure BitTorrent traffic runs more smoothly on its network, comes in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission's investigation into Comcast's traffic management.
One of the first tangible results will be the end of Comcast's current practice of using forged TCP reset packets to hinder BitTorrent uploads by its customers. Instead, the company will use a platform-agnostic technique that may ultimately slow down P2P traffic from its heaviest users.
"This means that we will have to rapidly reconfigure our network management systems, but the outcome will be a traffic management technique that is more appropriate for today's emerging Internet trends," said Comcast CTO Tony Werner in a statement. "We have been discussing this migration and its effects with leaders in the Internet community for the last several months, and we will refine, adjust, and publish the technique based upon feedback and initial trial results."
To read the article, click here.
TAGS:SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: 
This article is copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
