BitTorrent Placed Class action Lawsuit Against Comcast
Comcast subscribers that wanted to share files with the aid of BitTorrent trackers found that the Internet provider had imposed a certain traffic limit. Kevin J. Martin, Chairman of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) said that the previously mentioned company will not be fined, but measures will be taken to ensure such a thing will not happen again.
“The Internet is based upon the idea that consumers can go anywhere they want and access any content they want. When they show they are blocking access to some sort of content, they have the burden to show that what they are doing is reasonable. If they are going to put limits on individual customers if you use a certain amount of bandwidth per month or per hour, they have to be willing to tell their customers more about how it works,” says Martin.
The Internet provider’s action is widely understood to be a partial reaction to recent statements by FCC chair Kevin Martin, who argued this month that Comcast’s approach to its Torrent-oriented practices was deceptive and didn’t rule out the possibility of investigating the practice. In its existing form, the Comcast technique uses software from SandVine that cuts the peer-to-peer BitTorrent or Gnutella links between Comcast subscribers and others on the Internet under certain conditions, severely limiting download and upload speeds.
It is now up to the federal court to decide if Comcast’s BitTorrent users deserve to be compensated, and whether the company need to stop their misleading advertisements. Foster said the amount of the damages has yet to be estimated, but the alleged Class Action lawsuit are expected to exceed $5 million.
Source Electronista
Filed under Business News, Internet