Comcast has thrown in the towel in a legal fight against customers whose connections slowed drastically when using peer-to-peer file sharing.
The Internet service provider will pay out $16 million to affected users, Multichannel News reports, though the payments won't exceed $16 per customer.
Complaints about Comcast's service began in 2007, when users discovered that the service provider was blocking packets -- units of information routed through a data network -- that sent through BitTorrent. At first, Comcast denied that it was causing the slowdowns, but then the Associated Press investigated the matter and turned up evidence to the contrary. The Electronic Frontier Foundation came to the same conclusion (PDF).
That's when Comcast changed its tune, admitting to the blockage but saying it was within its right to do so. "Our network management practices at issue here were consumer-friendly and clearly disclosed to our subscribers in full compliance with all applicable legal requirements," the company said in a statement on the settlement. The Federal Communications Commission looked into the matter as well, and found that Comcast violated network neutrality principles that say all legal Internet uses should be treated equally. Comcast has appealed that ruling, and the case is ongoing.
Last year, Comcast changed its throttling policy. The ISP now slows down subscribers if they're consuming lots of bandwidth in a short period of time, but doesn't discriminate based on type of use.
The settlement comes as the FCC looks to strengthen its stance on net neutrality, going from an informal set of recommendations to hard and fast rules. These rules would bar ISPs from blocking particular uses or applications and harming competition. ISPs would also have to let users connect whatever devices they like, and they'd have to disclose how their networks are managed.
The proposed rules are vague, and Internet service providers are fighting them. I'm guessing that settling this lawsuit will allow Comcast to focus more on the big picture of net neutrality. At the very least, it prevents a public court battle that would make Comcast look bad, right at the time when it needs to be on its best behavior.
