tombrennan.org

Over the past few weeks subscirbers to Comcast’s high-speed internet service have noticed that their data transfers from the BitTorrent network have been cut off.  Customers who have not been cut-off completely have noticed their download speeds are not very good on the fairly quick network.  Most important to users of BitTorrent: They have been unable to seed their downloads.  This is important because the more files that are seeded the better your download speeds using a BitTorrent client.
Most ISPs have been pulling back on BitTorrent traffic, but Comcast is taking it a step further.  This is a measure by ISPs to prevent their customers from downloading data they shouldn’t be.  Although BitTorrent can be used for perfectly legal downloads (freeware games, open source programs, etc) companies are afraid of getting sued by the MPAA or RIAA for customers downloading movies and music.
Comcast is using a program called Sandvine that prevents its customers from seeding their downloads.  By seeding downloads users are able to download other files faster.  The BitTorrent system works on a credit system that allows users with more seeds to download faster.  In the case of Comcast, a user will have very slow download speeds.
Since Comcast and other ISPs cannot tell the difference between legal and copyrighted downloads they automatically “turn off the switch” which prevents people from downloading items like a Linux operating system, a musician from spreading their own music around, or a software programmer from sending out their new product.

addpile del.icio.us digg it slashdot