How Comcast blew it
Earlier this week I wrote at PVC of my belief that 2009 can be a big year for independent video producers. Two things have to happen for my dream to come true.
- The transition to DTV has to be completed on time, and the auction of the 700 MHz bandwidth has to be open to newcomers like Apple and Google – WiFi everywhere, WiFi for all!
- Net neutrality has to be maintained. Small video producers need equal access to the network.
The post coincided with the FCC hearing at Harvard Law School. Briefly stated, Comcast was being accused of limiting the bandwidth available to BitTorrent users on its broadband network. I’m all for net neutrality, but rising to the defense of weasels pirating content via BitTorrent makes me uneasy. Yet, for the greater good that’s where I came down. Comcast has no right to determine whose bits get moved along faster. Nobody signed up for that.
Now here’s what I don’t get. If Comcast wanted to get the BitTorrent weasels off its network, why not just start charging for uploads. Every plan comes with a couple of hundred megabytes upload allowance. Go over that allowance, and you get whacked. P2P networks like BitTorrent require users to make content on their machines available to others on the network. Once that starts costing money, people will begin opting out.
Instead Comcast ticked off the Republican chairman of the FCC. Considering the FCC has been big media’s rubber stamp since the Reagan era, that’s just Comcastic!
Some good background:
- Business Week on the hearing
- Comcast admits to stuffing seats at the hearing
- WBUR coverage of the hearing
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One Response to “How Comcast blew it”
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Hey Frank,
Maybe I don’t understand your point, but I thought for a diverse media environment we wanted to encourage user created content, not limit the ability to even start the initial seed. A couple of hundreds megabytes seems insanely limited.
Dale