Insider says should only affect 14,000 of its 14 million customers, but new policy that terminates accounts who receive 4 DMCA letters in a 12 month period may have more dramatic effect.Broadband Reports has a posted an interview with a "Comcast insider" who swears that the ISP has new network traffic management plans in store. After having been reprimanded buy the FCC and skewered by network neutrality advocates, BitTorrent users and companies, and almost everybody in between for throttling BitTorrent traffic in order to free up bandwidth, it now seems the ISP has decided on a formula of overusage fees and disconnections for persistent troublemakers. Set to begin in a "month or two," the plan would mean that all subscribers get a 250GB per month cap with one free "slip up" a year. Violators would be charged $15 for each 10GB over the cap. "The intent appears to be to go after the people who consistently download far more than the typical user without hurting those who may have a really big month infrequently," says an insider familiar with the project, who prefers to remain anonymous. "As far as I am aware, uploads are not affected, at least not initially." According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast's 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%). Comcast also targets file-sharers with stepped up enforcement of DMCA letters. "Up until now, letters sent out to account holders have not been tracked," the source says. "This will change, with progressively increasing penalties, up to disconnection of the account after four letters within a 12 month period," continues Broadband Report's insider. Overall I'd have to say that that this proposed plan sounds like a good one. It doesn't single out BitTorrent traffic nor does it target file-sharing specifically. Plus, a 250GB cap is pretty darn generous considering it works out to about 8.33GB per day. As for the DMCA letters, well if you're getting 4 of them a year you really shouldn't be file-sharing. Most importantly, at least they're upfront about it right? And not they're interfering with programs or protocols that have legitimate uses. It really just comes down to levels of use. |
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As for the disconnections based on DMCA notices, they sounds reasonable, but is there a simple appeals process? Many people are targeted by accident, and no one should be disconnected (or pay any sort of penalty) if there was no grounds for them to receive the notice in the first place. And if someone is disconnected on poor grounds dose that mean they can sue the ISP and/or **AA for defamation of character and/or, if its a business, material damages?
Well u get 4 a year so if you're getting that many in a 12month period you're doing something wrong right? At the very least you ought to switch up to Usenet or BitTorrent if u havent already right?