Advocacy groups skeptical of P-to-P bill of rights idea

Two consumer-focused advocacy groups have objected to a p-to-p bill of rights and responsibilities proposed by Comcast and Pando Networks, saying the companies don’t have the authority to speak for Internet users.

Cable modem provider Comcast seems to be trying to lessen criticism of its network management practices after press reports last October showed Comcast was throttling BitTorrent traffic, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group.

The p-to-p (peer-to-peer) bill of rights effort, announced Tuesday, comes after Comcast last month announced an agreement with BitTorrent, a leading user of the BitTorrent p-to-p protocol, with the two companies agreeing to work together to solve network management issues. Pando Networks is a maker of p-to-p software.

“This so-called agreement is simply another way for Comcast to try to evade punishment for its blocking and degrading of peer-to-peer services for its customers,” Sohn said in an e-mail. “As with the ‘agreement’ with BitTorrent, today’s announcement is long on rhetoric and short on detail.”

Sohn called Comcast’s idea for a customer bill of rights “ludicrous.”

“Comcast should fix its internal problems with customers being kicked off the Internet service for no good reason, or [who] are disappointed about having programming switched to expensive digital services before it starts pretending to solve the problems of the Internet that it helped to cause,” Sohn said.

Marvin Ammori, general counsel of advocacy group Free Press, also questioned the bill of rights.

“Comcast and a company called Pando have declared themselves the arbiters of consumers’ rights and responsibilities,” he said in an e-mail. “Their announcement gives little information about the arrangement, but Comcast’s behavior tells us everything we need to know. For the past year, Comcast has been blocking peer-to-peer applications — a practice that they continue to this day with no indication of when or if they plan to stop.”

Comcast seems to be trying to divert a U.S. Federal Communications Commission inquiry into the traffic blocking, Ammori said. The FCC has scheduled a hearing on network management and net neutrality at Stanford University in California on Thursday.

“Comcast’s announcement is little more than the fox telling the farmer, ‘I’ll guard the henhouse, you can go home,'” he said. “And that’s all the attention it deserves.”

A Comcast spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments. A representative of LimeWire, the distributor of a widely used p-to-p software package, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments on the Comcast proposal.

But an FCC spokesman said Wednesday the Comcast/Pando idea deserves to be considered. The FCC has invited representatives of the two companies to speak at the Thursday hearing, said spokesman Robert Kenny.

“Establishing a specific and clearly defined p-to-p bill of rights is an interesting idea with potentially important implications for all Internet users,” Kenny said. “We look forward to more fully understanding the goals, scope and time frame of this industry effort.”