Intellectual Property Law

Comcast: The Blogosphere Will Keep Us Honest

By Cynthia Brumfield

Comcast has laid out its views on whether the FCC should further delineate the kinds of network management practices that should apply to third party applications, particularly P2P protocols, running over broadband networks. In a wide-ranging, 80-page filing at the Commission (PDF here), Comcast defends its practice of slowing down P2P uploads saying that the "limited measures that Comcast takes to manage its network...are a reasonable part of Comcast's strategy to ensure a high-quality, reliable Internet experience for all Comcast High-Speed Internet customers," instead of a "vocal minority" that complain about P2P filtering.

Saying that it doesn't want the FCC to be drawn into "second-guessing the reasonable network management decisions that engineers" make every day, Comcast, not unsurprisingly, asks the agency to reject the notion that it spell out the precise nature of network management that it is allowed to implement.

What's really, really interesting, however, is that Comcast says that the free press, and in particular the blogosphere, will serve as some kind of market policing mechanism that prevents the company from stepping over the line. In its filing, Comcast writes:

The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.

I can't even hazard a guess about the efficacy of relying on a squawky blogosphere to rein in bad corporate behavior (although one could argue that Comcast is in hot water over its P2P policies precisely because the blogosphere fueled rampant criticism of the company). But you have to admit that it's kind of cool that Comcast thinks bloggers hold tremendous power.

The FCC, in the meantime, will hold a field hearing (PDF here) in Cambridge, MA on February 26 to air the issue of broadband network management practices, the agency announced yesterday, the same day that Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) finally unveiled his promised network neutrality bill (PDF here, thanks to Art Brodsky of Public Knowledge).

Full post as published by IP Democracy on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).