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Comcast's New Terms of Service Disclose Traffic Management

Posted by Soulskill on from the thanks-for-the-retroactive-heads-up dept.

cremou brings us word that Comcast has changed its Terms of Service to include policies on traffic management. This comes after the FCC's recent decision to investigate Comcast's P2P throttling. The language in the updated Terms of Service, according to Ars Technica, mirrors the FCC's 2005 Internet Policy Statement[PDF]. "According to Section III of the revised ToS, Comcast 'uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards.' The company points out that it is not alone in the practice, saying that 'all major' ISPs engage in some form of traffic shaping. Comcast does it to keep its subscribers from suffering the heartaches of 'spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service' and to 'deliver the best possible Internet experience to all of its customers.'"

9 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As long as you're only sending email - you'll have a great comcast experience.

  2. In other news... by djupedal · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm with Comcast and I don't see anXXXXnX XXong wXXX my serXXXe.

    1. Re:In other news... by unlametheweak · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can presume you are American. If so then you need to tell your politicians to re-introduce the law that forced the backbone providers to wholesale bandwidth to anybody who wants to get into the ISP business. Legislation can go a long ways to curbing monopolistic practices.

      And btw, you forgot to post anonymously ;)

    2. Re:In other news... by DimmO · · Score: 2, Funny

      So, what ISP are you with?

    3. Re:In other news... by unlametheweak · · Score: 2, Funny

      Once these guys are elected, they don't have to listen to shit. The problem is the wrong people are being nominated as presidential candidates. Has anybody nominated CmdrTaco? I'm sure if we combined our powers we could slashdot him into the White House.
  3. Fun with TOS! by Seakip18 · · Score: 4, Funny

    post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which a reasonable person could deem to be indecent, pornographic, harassing, threatening, hateful, or intimidating; Man. Does that mean comcast is going to start going after trolls for us? Additionally, I don't want to know how they'll determine what porno is to "reasonable person"

    initiate, perpetuate, or in any way participate in any pyramid or other illegal scheme; be aware all you would-be ponzi-scheme runners in Eve or WoW.

    impersonate any person or entity, engage in sender address falsification, forge anyone else's digital or manual signature, or perform any other similar fraudulent activity (for example, "phishing" There goes my not-very-famous George Dubya Impersonations.

    use or distribute tools or devices designed or used for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, unauthorized keystroke loggers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Unauthorized port scanning is strictly prohibited; No Nmapping your own computer or another to make it secure!!!!

    copy, distribute, or sublicense any software provided in connection with the Service by Comcast or any third party, except that you may make one copy of each software program for back-up purposes only; They don't care if it IS free. Only one for you!

    use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network ("Premises LAN"), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers; Call me a stickler but isn't a ROUTER considered a stand-alone piece of equipment that allows outside access?

    # restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to use or enjoy the Service, including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a worm, virus, or other harmful feature, or generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to use, send, or retrieve information;
    # restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Service or any Comcast (or Comcast supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service, or otherwise cause a performance degradation to any Comcast (or Comcast supplier) facilities used to deliver the Service; So, if I generate any traffic that might lower the download speed of another, I'm in violation or if I run into a telecommunication pole, I'm in violation?

    This and even more fun @ http://www6.comcast.net/terms/use/,the linked article
    --
    import system.cool.Sig;
  4. Re:Better quality for games/voice? by Dever · · Score: 2, Funny
    that is sweeeeeeeeeet! do you guys each have your own basement?

    last straw indeed! i bet they're pilin' up the frags now!

    --
    - I'd prefer not to.
  5. Call customer service by peipas · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hi, I'm Angela, how may I help you today?"

    "Hi Angela. I was looking through the terms of service and wanted to make sure I am not in violation of my agreement. Is it true that I'm not allowed to view or download pornographic material?"

    "Uhmm..."

    "I have downloaded a LOT of porn through the Comcast service. Everything is legal-- everyone over 18, and amateur material only rather than pirated commercial material. I prefer the amateur work anyway, it's more real, you know? Have you viewed or published anything pornographic using Comcast service? I'd feel a little more comfortable if I knew I was in good company. Also, do you want to trade?"

  6. Comcast's New Terms by kellyb9 · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you download over a MB a day, they come to your house and hit you with a bat.