Comcast Now Facing Class-Action Suit Over BitTorrent Blocking

Comcast has now finally been hit with a lawsuit (after having a FCC complaint filed two weeks ago) over the BitTorrent blocking practices first proved by the Associated Press. The lawsuit was filed by a California resident on Tuesday, and seeks class-action status, damages, and for Comcast to change its advertising to reflect their traffic manipulation:

John Hart describes himself as a Comcast customer who has seen performance hits when using "Blocked Applications" targeted by Comcast's traffic management application, Sandvine. In his complaint, Hart says that Comcast severely limits "the speed of certain internet applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing and lotus notes [sic]." Comcast accomplishes this by "transmitting unauthorized hidden messages" to the PCs of those using the applications.

When asked by Wired's THREAT LEVEL for comment, Comcast replied with the following:

Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites, VOIP applications like Vonage, and thousands of other applications online. We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications.

Considering the AP and other investigations have proven that Comcast definitely throttles traffic, even going so far as faking client data to make p2p applications like BitTorrent think files aren't available on the network, I can't see why Comcast is still flat out denying the throttling allegations. So far, their best explanations amount to "we're only delaying traffic, not blocking it," and with their deceptive advertising practices and denials, that's just not good enough.

Personally I think Comcast has been caught with their pants down, and unlike certain recurring pants-down fantasies I have, it's not a pretty sight.

Hart v. Comcast [Wired]
Comcast hit with class-action lawsuit over traffic blocking [Ars Technica]