It's here!

I found this article in the Lodi News-Sentinel and the Stockton Record last Saturday, October 20. You think that net neutrality is something that isn’t happening now, something way into the future? Wrong! It’s happening now! Comcast, the second largest Internet provider in the U.S., hindered some of its high-speed Internet subscribers from sharing files online. Comcast didn’t want that much bandwidth used when people were file sharing. Also they didn’t want the Internet speeds of other subscribers to be affected. Comcast’s spokesman wouldn’t address this incident, but “confirmed that it uses sophisticated methods to keep Net connections running smoothly. Comcast doesn’t block access to any applications, including BitTorrent.” BitTorrent is a file-sharing network.

The Associated Press did some nationwide tests and found Comcast was performing data discrimination. Apparently, “company computers masquerade as those of its users.” Comcast customers can download files from BitTorrent. The only problem is uploading files, which are blocked or delayed by Comcast. When uploading the file, “each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating.” This message doesn’t come from the other user, but from Comcast itself. The AP compares this interruption to an operator interfering in your telephone conversation with another person telling you that you have to hang up.

The AP states that large Internet carriers have tentative plans that are now postponed, “to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee,” basically net neutrality. This was wrong of Comcast. Maybe now that Comcast has negative publicity it might stop this ludicrous practice. So now you know that net neutrality isn’t some issue of the far future, it’s happening now and you have to take a stance. Tell us what you think about net neutrality and these posts by commenting!