FCC May Fine Comcast Up To $1.77 Trillion! A joke?

[BLAZE86]

January 8, 2008

Comcast is about to get an expensive lesson, one that Warner Music Group learned last year at the expense of its business: going to war with your customers doesn’t pay. As 2007 came to a close, we learned what we suspected for years: that Comcast has been inhibiting their users’ ability to use popular file sharing protocols, like BitTorrent. Treading in the waters of non-network neutrality is a major faux pas amongst the geek elite, but it may turn out to be a costly violation by the standards of the FCC.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced today that a coaltion of consumer groups and legal scholars had asked the agency in November to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of data. The two groups also asked the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 per affected subscriber.
I’ll give you a second to digest that. I went through the article from the AP wire a couple times, and I somehow absorbed that Comcast was only going to be fined $195,000. That’s not the case. Comcast has 9.1 million subscribers to their digital services, according to their most recently issued investor’s report.
Run that through your calculator. The fine could reach upwards of $1.77 trillion!
As it turns out, violating the trust of your userbase and denying them the ability to use their data plans unfettered can cost a bit more than a few days of bad PR in the technology blogosphere. One thing is for certain, admitting your company is not net neutral won’t be acceptable behavior any longer, and maybe - just maybe - big broadband providers may reconsider their network filtering policies.

FCC May Fine Comcast Up To $1.77 Trillion

Freedom to Tinker Blog Archive Comcast’s Disappointing Defense

Comcast Asks the FCC: How Stupid Do We Look?

Comcast Practically Admits to Controlling Your Bandwidth Usage. So Not Net Netural.

[BLAZE86]

Bleh.. I should have posted this in rumors / gaming buzz.. my bad.

I have Comcast, and I feel that its a ok ISP. I had to change my package after Adelphia was bought by Comcast about 2 years ago. I also have Comcast digital Cable on my TVs. I have a old digital cable box and modem from Adelphia still. I'm gunna go bring them to the Comcast office near here and get newer equipment.. Might even buy my own cable modem and have them install it.. because I guess they gotta take information from the modem before I can use it or w/e. They charge 3$ every month for cable modem renting..

I'm also paying about $130 a month total now. Thats for the internet, and digital cable / classic cable / extended digital channels / and on demand.

[Craig]

moved for ya...

but yes, this is a hot topic for sure. Hollywood and the RIAA just love Comcast for doing this, but if you're a linux user used to getting your files via torrent, you're being fooked. Just because someone can use a protocol to do something illegal, doesn't mean that they will. I hope Comcast takes a beating over this one

[ech0]

I don't hope Comcast takes a beating over this one. Hurting an American company that employs thousands and making it blow you with $1.77 trillion, holy crap. Sure, they should be fined by the FCC and change how they do certain things, but that is WAY too much. If that happens, it would sure bring Comcast down the drain and screw over all the subscribers even more! How would we all like that? I don't want to move to Verizon as they suck even more than Comcast does in this area, and I like my Digi Cable and OnDemand.

[Craig]

no one would ever fine them 1.7 trillion...its a theoretical number.

[Dopefish]

Yeah, there's no way in hell they're going to be fined that much money. They'll probably settle some deal of a number in the millions and just be forced to not discriminate data.

[BLAZE86]

Who really cares about P2P sharing / bit torrents / illegal copyrighted sharing anyway.. yea it does stop people from bothering to take the time to go buy a dvd movie, or a music album.. But after blue-ray movies starts getting alot more popular I can all most predict alot of people will stop downloading movies for sure because of overall quality.

I'd share some marijuana with a stranger without a problem..

Would McDonald's get pissed too if I shared a large soda with someone?~

I can't wait till the next president gets asked for action or no action about this. It go's pretty deep.. Theres prolly about half a million people at least who download copyrighted stuff right now, maybe more? Anyone know the numbers?

Music wise.. Alot of new adults, the next generation.. tend to like alot of music and DJing on the move is a big thing now adays.. I bet maybe 70% of the people who do DJ and have a large music list / pile are prolly close to all illegal DL's..

Can't you add MP3's illegally downloaded or not directly to a IPOD or other mobile music player?

Alot of illegal uploaders are praised by alot of downloaders too.. It's kinda scary, I've seen everything from fansites / blogs hundreds of praise posts.. even offers of slavery and BJ's.. its so cultist! ha

Oh.. and P.S.

YouTube - Medical Marijuana Vending Machine

YouTube - Medical Marijuana Vending Machine

Lamo heh 0mgz 2PAC at like 39sec!

[akabaloo]

yeah I was wondering why I couldn't speedwalk as fast as the guy on the commercial, even with my internet connected... Where's my speedboost?!?