Markey’s Bill Won’t Fix Comcast/BitTorrent
Net neutrality may not resolve Comcast vs. BitTorrent:
…[E]ven 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…. When asked whether Comcast’s conduct toward BitTorrent would be prohibited under [Congressman Ed Markey's] original bill, the [unnamed staff] 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.
The FCC presently allows providers to manage their networks with “reasonable and non-discriminatory measures,” which is what Comcast says they’re 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.”
