Has the FCC Gotten Something Right?

It’s beginning to look like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is near a decision to lock the virtual cuffs on cable/internet giant Comcast for its alleged role in blocking access to file-sharing, according to Cnet.

If the government agency does punish Comcast this will be the first major punishment on a mega company as it relates to the business of file-sharing on the Net. FCC chair Kevin Martin has been after the cable and internet provider for several months now after it appeared that Comcast purposely pared down user peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic over its vast network.

The vote this past week for punishment by the FCC was 3 commissioners in favor, supporting sanctions of some kind. The remaining commissioners are expected to vote in the affirmative as well. How those punishments would be implemented isn’t known since a stiff monetary fine is highly unlikely and would probably never fly in Congress. However, Comcast could be forced to completely stop all its efforts to curb P2P. They could also be mandated to publicly release all of its past efforts to block P2P and release, in writing, to all of its customers how it will manage its internet service in this regard for the future. Putting their P2P policies in a written contract would make it legally binding and could open the door for tough financial discipline from the FCC and Congress if broken, or even lawsuits from the company’s millions of customers.

“The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers’ access to the Internet,” stated Marin in a press release to the AP. “We found that Comcast’s actions in this instance violated our principles.”

The allegations of Comcast’s blocking of P2P was major news last February and the cable/internet company immediately issued a statement denying the charges. The FCC launched an investigation which, they believe pointed to the company’s misdeed in this area. At that time Comcast’s executive VP, David Cohen did admit to curtailing P2P traffic from time to time, but indicated it wasn’t a regular practice.

“Comcast may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has or is projected to have an adverse effect on other customers’ use of the service,” stated Cohen. [However], “Comcast does not block any Web site, application, or Web protocol, including peer-to-peer services, period. What we are doing is a limited form of network management objectively based upon an excessive bandwidth-consumptive protocol during limited periods of network congestion.”

Martin and other commissioners on the FCC board found Cohen’s explanation dubious at best and continued with their investigation into the allegations, which has led to the current vote. The final ruling on the issue is expected to come at another commission meeting set for August 1 of this year.