Gear

Comcast Again Denies Targeting BitTorrent Following AP Sting

The Associated Press busted Comcast for blocking BitTorrent yesterday, though we all knew it was happening thanks to earlier reports here at Wired and the bizarre circumlocutions the company used in its denials. If nothing else, it’s good to know. What’s also good to know is how the AP crafted its bust so that reasonable […]

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The Associated Press busted Comcast for blocking BitTorrent yesterday, though we all knew it was happening thanks to earlier reports here at Wired and the bizarre circumlocutions the company used in its denials. If nothing else, it's good to know. What's also good to know is how the AP crafted its bust so that reasonable doubt/deniability was removed from the equation.

The best part? It used the Bible as the test file.

Comcast, why are you blocking access to The Savior? Do you hate America?

*UPDATE: Found via BoingBoing, Comcast is still, inexplicably, saying it doesn't do this. Information Week quotes Comcast executive Amy Banse as suggesting the report is "hyperbole" and claiming that only a tiny proportion of specific users were being throttled, because they use too much bandwidth: *

"While 99.9% of Comcast customers get access to the Internet without interference, the 0.1% that fit into the category of excessive use have to be managed"

So the AP investigation, which found its test files blocked from two of three accounts, got a 66% hit rate from a 0.1% probability?

AP Tests Comcast's File-Sharing Filter [AP]