Could P2P blocking be legalized by new net neutrality rules?2010-01-29 09:26 by DanielaTags: P2P, FCC, Net Neutrality
The Electronic Frontier Foundation can't believe it: the FCC's network neutrality draft rules, if adopted in their current form, might give Comcast permission to flat-out block BitTorrent—precisely the scenario that led to the rules being drafted. It's a shocking claim, if true. Could FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's big push for network neutrality actually authorize the very conduct it was (ostensibly) drafted to prevent, indiscriminate blocking of the bluntest kind? The EFF is concerned about a particular pair of clauses in the current draft rules (PDF) for network neutrality. Those clauses impose no obligation on ISPs to permit "the transfer of unlawful content" or the "unlawful transfer of content." In other words, ISPs don't have to be "neutral" about illegal content, and those trafficking in it can't complain to the FCC is their content is slowed, blocked, throttled, folded, spindled, or mutilated. If there was any doubt about this, another section of the draft rules make it clear: "Furthermore, we have no intention of protecting unlawful activities in these rules." Fred von Lohmann, an EFF copyright lawyer, sees danger here. "That means that so long as your ISP claims that it's trying to prevent copyright infringement, it's exempted from the net neutrality principles and can interfere with your ability to access lawful content, use lawful devices, run lawful applications, or access lawful services," he said last week. Read more -here-
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