Lawmaker Cries Foul Ahead of FCC Net-Neutrality Decision - Via Threat Level:

At least one lawmaker is already crying foul over Friday's expected Federal Communications Commission's censure of Comcast for faking internet traffic to limit its customers' peer-to-peer file sharing.

Republican minority leader Rep. John Boehner said the FCC would be "essentially regulating the internet."

In a letter (.pdf) Thursday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the Ohio congressman said that the government should stay out of the net neutrality debate and let the free market work it out. He indirectly noted how Comcast is already working with the private sector to "find better ways to manage traffic."

"It is this market-based, self-governing nature of the internet that is the key to its success," Boehner wrote Thursday. "Your heavy-handed attempts to inject the FCC into the middle of that process threaten to hijack the evolution of the internet to everyone's detriment."

Independent tests showed that Comcast sometimes sent stop signals via fake RST packets to file sharing programs that were uploading BitTorrent files. Those files are the choice of pirates to purloin copyrighted movies, software and other material, but they are also used to deliver legitimate content as well, such as internet-based television.

Faking RST packets is a technique often used by repressive regimes to block citizens from viewing blacklisted websites.

Comcast, which has 14 million subscribers, says it only "delays" a small percentage of the massive amounts of peer-to-peer file sharing traffic on its network, and had the right to do so under the commission's traffic management protocols.

Still, Comcast announced in March it was switching to a new network management technique by the end of the year for managing bandwidth use and congestion. The company said it was partnering with BitTorrent Inc. of San Francisco to develop a neutral traffic-management protocol that singles out bandwidth hogs regardless of application.

Three weeks ago, Comcast asked the FCC to stick to its policy of not regulating the internet, arguing that market forces are enough to ensure that ISPs don't dictate how the internet grows.
"We believe our actions, taken in good faith in response to consumers' concerns, further confirm the wisdom of the commission's long-standing policy showing regulatory restraint," the company wrote in a July 10 letter (.pdf) to the FCC.

Beyond a corporate slap on the wrist, it was not immediately known what punishment, if any, Comcast faces from the FCC. Digital rights groups, however, are already applauding the commission's expected disapproval of internet service providers battling network traffic jams with fake RST packets while discriminating against certain peer-to-peer applications.

Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a non-profit that brought the FCC complaint against Comcast, said in a statement that the FCC's expected action Friday was "entirely praise-worthy."

See Also:

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• Comcast Sued Over BitTorrent Blocking - UPDATED
• Net Neutrality Gains Traction In 2008 Senate Races

(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level.)