Comcast Bittorrent FCC Order Text Released
Posted: Wednesday August 20, 2008
August 20, 2008
In response to the release by the FCC of the text of the Order finding that Comcast violated federal law when it degraded peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Media Access Project, issued the following statement:
“Today, the Commission resolves the complaints of Free Press and over 20 thousand individual subscribers by holding that Comcast may not block access to lawful content while simultaneously telling customers they do no such thing. The Order lays out a clear basis for Commission authority, finding that Congress did indeed require the FCC to protect subscribers from such unreasonable and deceptive practices. By granting our complaint, the FCC fulfills its responsibilities to Comcast’s customers and to all American broadband users.”
“Only one flaw mars this otherwise exceptionally strong pro-consumer Order. Having correctly found Comcast’s arguments unpersuasive and its practices unreasonable, the FCC then gives Comcast a month to develop a ‘compliance plan,’ and until the end of the year to stop blocking its own customers from doing what they have every legal right to do — use p2p applications to upload or download legal content. While we should certainly celebrate today’s Order, no one should declare ‘mission accomplished’ until Comcast’s BitTorrent blocking stops for good.”
Harold Feld
Senior Vice President
Media Access Project
hfeld@mediaaccess.org
202-454-5684
www.mediaaccess.org