Ethics Newsline®

Critics claim ISPs block file-sharing traffic; meanwhile, one of the firms involved in the hearing admits it hired people to fill seats so critics would be turned away

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
An ethics controversy over control of Internet traffic resurfaced last week and straddled two separate issues: so-called Net neutrality and the ethics of paying passersby to fill seats at a hearing into the issue.

The basic issue is bandwidth shaping versus Net neutrality. Bandwidth shaping means slowing some traffic, such as downloads of shared movies, by Internet service providers (ISPs) who argue that penalizing such traffic will keep the Internet from becoming jammed by a relatively small number of bandwidth hogs.

Proponents of Net neutrality argue that all traffic should be treated the same.

The ethics issues revolve around whether ISPs should have the right to treat transmissions differently and whether they should be allowed to digitally inspect Internet traffic in order to make that determination.

Last week, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin said he is “ready, willing, and able” to keep Internet providers from “unreasonably interfering” with subscribers’ access to Internet content, according to a report from the Reuters news agency.

A variety of major ISPs have intruded on Internet traffic in some manner, often under the aegis of wording in their “acceptable use policy,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

The harshest criticism has been leveled at Comcast, which blocks some file-sharing Internet traffic without letting customers know, according to detractors cited in the Times report.

During the FCC hearings into bandwidth shaping and Net neutrality, two MIT computer science professors testified not only that Comcast was blocking selected traffic but was violating customer privacy by using secretive inspection and traffic-diversion methods, reports the technology news network CNET.

Comcast rebutted that it engages in limited management of what it termed “excessive” file sharing in a way that would produce imperceptible effects for most customers.

The FCC is expected to eventually impose regulations specifying what, if any, network-management techniques are acceptable, reports the industry trade journal Broadcasting & Cable.

A sidebar: The FCC hearing, held at Harvard Law School, was the focus of another ethics controversy when the organizer charged that Comcast had hired spectators to claim seats later filled by Comcast employees in an apparent attempt to ensure a receptive audience and limit anti-Comcast attendees.

The Associated Press reports that Comcast acknowledged that it hired an unspecified number of people to fill the seats after it learned that an anti-Comcast advocacy group had been urging people to attend. A manager at Harvard claimed about three dozen seat-warmers took chairs during the opening hours, causing other members of the public to be turned away, according to the AP.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Mar. 2 — Reuters, Mar. 1 — Broadcasting & Cable, Mar. 1 — AP, Mar. 1 –
CNET, Mar. 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Feb. 25 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 22, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 1, 2007 — Related Newsline story, June 26, 2006.