It is confirmed now that Comcast, which is the #2 Internet Service Provider in the US, has taken steps to prevent their subscribers from transferring information via peer to peer networks such as BitTorrent. The cable giant is using some type of software called Sandvine developed by a Canadian company which will interject false packets into the transfer and basically block the traffic.

But it gets better. The latest is that someone tried to download the entire King James version of the Bible, a non-copyrighted book and when they couldn’t, now claims that Comcast is against Jesus and the spreading of the gospel. Nice try, but I seriously doubt that Comcast is doing this for religious reasons nor trying to stifle the word of the good book.

What is disturbing is the fact that Comcast is trying to control bandwidth by selecting what can be transfered via the Internet. This goes against the entire Net Neutrality thing, which just recently some have argued is not really necessary. The main problem is that the FCC has no clear cut guidelines. Congress is reluctant to act, which is understandable. Most people don’t have a clue on how the Internet works anyway. Why should Congress be any different?

Is Comcast the only one who is doing this or are they the first to get caught?

What do you think? Do we need stricter guidelines to prevent companies like Comcast from restricting what we do on the Internet? Or does Comcast have a right to control broadband usage?

Comments welcome.

Tags: comcast, jesus, bible, good book, bandwidth, broadband, restrictions