Comcast, Cox Slow BitTorrent Traffic All Day

narramissic writes "A study by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems found that Comcast and Cox Communications are slowing BitTorrent traffic at all times of day, not just peak hours. Comcast was found to be interrupting at least 30% of BitTorrent upload attempts around the clock. At noon, Comcast was interfering with more than 80% of BitTorrent traffic, but it was also slowing more than 60% of BitTorrent traffic at other times, including midnight, 3 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern Time in the U.S., the time zone where Comcast is based. Cox was interfering with 100% of the BitTorrent traffic at 1 a.m., 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Eastern Time. Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice downplayed the results saying, 'P-to-p traffic doesn't necessarily follow normal traffic flows.'"

Comments

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about time someone stood up to you no-good file sharing thieves. All you assholes do is steal other peoples hard work. Just because the internet existed when you were born does not mean that free music and movies are a birthright.

And fuck your nitpicking - copying is stealing. Period.

Re:Good

[gzerphey]

And frankly "F you" for assuming that all P2P traffic is illegal file sharing. There are many legitimate uses for P2P that is unfortunately getting trapped by Comcast's technique. The shotgun approach isn't always the best way.

I guess when all you have is a hammer....

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

You are full of shit.

Is it okay to put murderers in jail? How about putting you in jail? According to your system of morality as revealed by your comment, the answer has to be the same, because they're both people!

So who is it going through all that work of going into the fields to steal a few potatoes, exactly? Have you met them? Do they say what they think to you? Is it people who can afford plenty of food for themselves, but would just prefer to steal potatoes because they taste better that way? Where do your father's potatoes

Re:Looking the other way...

[Swift Kick]

"Even if software is cheap, it's never going to be cheap enough for a college student eating Ramen and saving money for beer on the weekends."

See, you're wrong about this. In any college, you will find discounted copies of software and hardware from Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft.

"If Adobe made it impossible for him to get an illegal copy of Photoshop, guess what?"

Bullshit. You can go to the Adobe page here, for example, and see that Photoshop CS3 has a price of $299, compared to $999 retail.
There is no excuse for the 'college student' you refer to to skip a few keggers and get his needed software legally, rather than pirate it.

"And when he arrives at his first job and they ask him which version of the Creative Suite he needs, he very well might say "That's alright - I know Gimp and Inkscape, and I already have them. Just get me a bigger monitor instead.""

Both Gimp and Inkscape are lacking in the areas required in the professional world, and that's a topic that's been beaten to death.
They'd actually tell him what version of CS he'll be using, because they'll (most likely) have either a site or floating license, so your analogy continues to be wrong.
Him being a rockstar in Gimp or Inkscape has just about the same value as him being fantastic with Paintshop Pro or Windows Image tool when it comes to the real world (i.e. useless).

"It's a nightmare scenario, and one of those things I wish they (Microsoft/Adobe/Autodesk/Apple) would be more honest about."

They don't need to be 'more honest'; you need to be more informed before you mouth off and display your ignorance.