A California man filed suit in state court Tuesday against internet service provider Comcast, arguing that the company's secret use of technology to limit peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent violates federal computer fraud laws, their user contracts and anti-fraudulent advertising statutes. Plaintiff Jon Hart, represented by the Lexington Law Group, argues that Comcast's promises of providing internet connections that let users "Download at Crazy Fast Speeds" are false and misleading since Comcast limits downloads by transmitting "unauthorized hidden messages to the computers of customers" who use peer-to-peer file sharing software. Hart wants the court to force Comcast to stop interfering with the traffic. He also wants the court to certify the suit as a class action and force Comcast to pay damages to himself and all other Comcast internet subscribers in California.
View: Full Story @ Wired
View: Full Story @ Wired
i really hope more people do this
A prime example of violation of net neutrality, and people willing to fight for it. This is what I want to see, people fighting back against these damn corporations for this kind of obscene behavior.
What he has done is say: "Hey! Record and Movie anti-piracy groups, look at me!!".
What he has done is say: "Hey! Record and Movie anti-piracy groups, look at me!!".
i agree there, unless the person is a WoW freak or something and wants the patches faster
Good point, although I'm not sure I would be getting so worked us as to file a lawsuit just because of a few k/sec slower downloads of infrequent Linux Distros and WoW patches.
But that's not the point, the point is that Comcast is limiting your use on purpose. You are paying for a service that likes to be selective. You can download at full speed from Microsoft.com but you can't from bittorrent... One, that is discrimination and 2 they are not allowed to do that.
Most people get their dodgy stuff from a small number of trackers. Block connecting to just those, and you don't affect the legal torrents anymore.
Customer: "Comcast promised 'crazy fast' speeds but they are throttling my P2P traffic!"
Judge: "How do you know?"
Customer: "Because it takes forever to download new movies that I don't feel like paying for!"
Judge: "So you are suing Comcast for limiting your ability to download illegal material?"
Customer: "Yep. How much money do I get?"
ComcrapComcast"At which point most users will glance over the letter, see that there is nothing that they have to send back, and then throw the letter away, only to bitch about things later.
Also, changing the TOS going forward wouldn't get them having to pay damages for all of the inferior quality service they have been providing to date.
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