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Comcast, BitTorrent: First take - March 27, 2008

Media Wonk is at the Tech Policy Summit in LA, where BitTorrent co-founder Ashwin Navin is scheduled to speak later today, so presumably we'll get more detail on the deal between BitTorrent and Comcast to ease hostilities over Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent traffic. In the meantime, the full press release on the agreement is well worth reading. If all of its commitments are followed through on, it could mark a significant turning point in the heretofore prickly relationship between network operators and bandwidth-hungry applications developers.

It was unclear Thursday whether the agreement will have any bearing on the FCC's ongoing investigation of Comcast's network management practices. But those who were spoiling for the regulatory fight were disappointed to see peace break out.

From Public Knowledge:

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen announcements by Verizon and now Comcast that the companies are working to make peer-to-peer technologies work more smoothly. We applaud industry discussions and collaborations, but neither of these developments has any bearing on the complaint and petitions pending before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on what rights users have on the Internet. They are irrelevant.

The FCC has the responsibility to protect the rights of consumers against discriminatory network management practices. Any future agreements in the private sector do not change that reality, particularly if the companies involved reach agreements that work specifically with some technologies or network companies and not with others. Any arrangements made now would not cover any future developments in blocking, throttling or filtering that any other companies may use.

The FCC should continue to reinforce its principles of Internet access and should continue to work for the benefit of consumers regardless of any particular arrangements made by the private sector.

And from the Open Internet Coaltion:

Despite the welcome news that Comcast and BitTorrent are working together, the FCC still needs to reinforce these efforts by establishing the basic rules of the road for BitTorrent users and all Internet consumers by defining permissible broadband network management practices.

Time and time again, when the telcos and cable companies engage in discriminatory behavior against certain types of speech and content --- as we’ve seen with AT&T, Verizon, and most recently with Comcast – a familiar pattern emerges. First, a spotlight gets focused on the bad behavior. Then, when exposed, the companies state such action is within their power as network operators. After that, the FCC and Congress focus on these discriminatory acts, and finally, the companies do a U-turn and apologize. While it’s always a positive step when these companies admit the error of their ways, it’s a bad way to run the Internet.

This kind of uncertainty about whether a service or application will work over broadband networks threatens continued innovation on the Internet. As long as network operators can define, on their own terms, what applications can and cannot be used on the Internet, developers and investors face uncertainty about whether the next big thing will be allowed to have full functionality over broadband operators. We need the FCC to continue to examine this issue, and clearly and completely define proper network practices to foster an open and non-discriminatory Internet for both consumers and innovators.

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