P2P Bill of Rights to be Issued by Comcast, Others
Comcast and Pando agreed to publish a peer-to-peer “bill of rights and responsibilities” detailing best practices for broadband subscribers, Internet service providers, P2P companies and content owners. The two companies will work with ISPs, P2P companies and others to publish the document this year, they said Tuesday. The announcement comes amid an FCC investigation of whether Comcast blocked P2P file transfers using BitTorrent. The companies have reached an agreement to work together (CD March 28 p1).
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The “bill of rights” will take into account the views of various players and specify broadband subscribers’ “choices and controls” in P2P activities, said a news release from Comcast and Pando. The document also will detail the “processes and practices” that broadband service providers are allowed in handling P2P applications, they said. “P2P users should have the right to control their computers’ resources when using P2P applications,” the companies said. ISPs have been struggling with how to deal with so-called bandwidth hogs who download and transfer great amounts of data, which can sap network capacity.
With the P4P Working Group, Comcast and Pando will publish the results of tests of file downloading using Pando’s P2P application over the cable operator’s network. That will show other ISPs how they can “benefit from understanding how P2P applications might be optimized for traveling over different types of networks in different environments and geographies,” the release said.
The Comcast-Pando deal shows why broadband management is best left to industry, not regulators, the companies said. They called it “yet another example of how these technical issues can be worked out through private business discussions.” NCTA said the deal provides more evidence that private cooperation is the best way “to address complicated technological issues.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said the bill of rights “is further evidence that the P2P congestion challenge is being addressed by the private sector as have all Internet governance matters since the Internet’s inception.” FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein declined to comment. Aides or spokespeople for the other three FCC members didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Free Press, which complained to the FCC about Comcast’s network management, was unmoved by its deal with Pando. The companies provided paltry details, the group said. “Slick press releases by a dishonest would-be gatekeeper do nothing to protect consumers,” it said. “Facing unprecedented public, government and media scrutiny, Comcast is desperately trying to change the subject with a few over-hyped side conversations.”