US CABLE COMMUNICATIONS provider Comcast appealed in federal court Thursday against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order that it stop interfering with file sharing traffic passing over its network.

In a three to two vote held on August 1st, the FCC held that Comcast monitored its subscribers' Internet traffic and blocked peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers via the BitTorrent protocol, thereby violating the FCC's policy of net neutrality.

Despite evidence showing that Comcast injected reset packets to shut down Bittorrent file transfers, Comcast still claims it never blocked any of its customers' network connections, admitting only that it engaged in unspecified " network management" practices as allowed by regulations.

Comcast vice president David Cohen said the company filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia because it believes the FCC went too far, although he said the company would comply. The FCC's order was its first action about net neutrality.

In a statement, Cohen blathered about Comcast protecting its legal rights and complained that the FCC didn't have "pre-existing legally enforceable standards or rules" to decide that Comcast was in violation of federal communications policy and impose its remedial order.

"Let's suppose they win. The commission would not have the authority to deal with them," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for one of the complaining public interest groups Public Knowledge. "This is about setting ground rules for enforcement." µ

See Also
Comcast sets traffic limit
Internet throttling to continue
FCC hauls Comcast over the coals

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