What a surprise to open today's Wall Street Journal [1] and see that Comcast and BitTorrent are suddenly BFF. Apparently, all Comcast's blocking, lying [2], blocking, denying [3], blocking, seat-filling [4], blocking, snubbing its nose at the FCC [5], and more blocking was just a big misunderstanding.
According to the companies’ joint press release [6]: “Comcast Corporation and BitTorrent, Inc. announced today that they will undertake a collaborative effort with one another and with the broader Internet and ISP community to more effectively address issues associated with rich media content and network capacity management.”
Oh, and did they mention? “Both BitTorrent and Comcast expressed the view that these technical issues can be worked out through private business discussions without the need for government intervention.”
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there still might be a few loose ends.
Here’s Marvin Ammori [7], general counsel of Free Press, who wrote the complaint that sparked the FCC investigation:
This agreement does nothing to protect the many other peer-to-peer companies from blocking, nor does it protect future innovative applications and services. Finally, it does nothing to prevent other phone and cable companies from blocking. Innovators should not have to negotiate side deals with phone and cable companies to operate without discrimination. The Internet has always been a level playing field, and we need to keep it that way.
And he’s far from alone in questioning the Comcast-BitTorrent love affair. Here’s Nicholas Reville of the Participatory Culture Foundation [8], whose Miro [9]Internet TV application is one of the fastest-growing BitTorrent clients in the world:
Comcast is taking a page right out of the auto industry playbook: Car companies deny the importance of global warming while using announcements of future technology to block meaningful environmental protections. Comcast can see that public demands for Net Neutrality protections are growing — this announcement is a transparent attempt to distract from that debate. The announcement from Comcast and BitTorrent Inc has absolutely nothing to do with the need for Net Neutrality protections, and BitTorrent Inc certainly does not speak for other torrent technology companies.
And even FCC Chairman Kevin Martin [10] seems skeptical of the new P2Peace agreement:
I hope that the negotiations to which Comcast commits today will result in a solution that preserves consumers’ ability to access any lawful Internet content and applications of their choice. That ability is fundamental to preserving the open marketplace and innovation that characterizes the Internet.
I am concerned, though, that Comcast has not made clear when they will stop this discriminatory practice. It appears this practice will continue throughout the country until the end of the year and in some markets, even longer. 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. Comcast should provide its broadband customers as well as the Commission with a commitment of a date certain by when it will stop this practice.
The FCC is holding a hearing at Stanford [11] on April 17. Be sure to get there early!