Background: BitTorrent and Comcast have announced they will work together to make their Internet technologies operate more smoothly. The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen announcements by Verizon and now Comcast that the companies are working to make peer-to-peer technologies work more smoothly. We applaud industry discussions and collaborations, but neither of these developments has any bearing on the complaint and petitions pending before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on what rights users have on the Internet. They are irrelevant.
“The FCC has the responsibility to protect the rights of consumers against discriminatory network management practices. Any future agreements in the private sector do not change that reality, particularly if the companies involved reach agreements that work specifically with some technologies or network companies and not with others. Any arrangements made now would not cover any future developments in blocking, throttling or filtering that any other companies may use.
“The FCC should continue to reinforce its principles of Internet access and should continue to work for the benefit of consumers regardless of any particular arrangements made by the private sector.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.