FCC Head: ‘We’re Going to Investigate Comcast’

Wants to make sure that no consumer is being blocked from using legal software like BitTorrent.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was asked a number of questions yesterday at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show(CES) and none was more anticipated by yours truly than what his plans are to address Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent traffic.

"Sure, we’re going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," he said.

The FCC’s response will be an important test of its support for net neutrality, which the agency has a broadly stated policy supporting, but has yet to enforce the principle with ISPs. It does say ISPs have an exception for "reasonable traffic management." Comcast has said the practice of BiTorrent throttling falls under this exception.

"The question is going to arise: Are they reasonable network practices?" Martin said Tuesday. "When they have reasonable network practices, they should disclose those and make those public."

What Comcast has yet to acknowledge though is that even under the guise of "traffic management" it is essentially playing de facto gatekeeper of content by inhibiting people’s ability to share large files which BitTorrent is so adept at handling. For independent film producers for example, this means that sharing your work with others online will be more difficult than it would be otherwise.

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