Didn't Take Long: Comcast Ditches P2P Bill Of Rights Idea

from the we'll-just-join-a-standards-body dept

Tue, May 6th 2008 6:01pm — Mike Masnick

Just a few weeks ago, Comcast announced a plan to offer up a P2P Bill of Rights as a way to get federal regulators off its back. Of course, as we pointed out at the time, the company never really explained why such a Bill of Rights was actually needed. Instead, it just seemed like something of a PR stunt to show the FCC that it was doing something. Having received the necessary press coverage, Comcast has now abandoned the plan, but says instead that it will join the Distributed Computing Industry Association, which is a newly formed group designed to create best practices around this area. This certainly makes a lot more sense than developing a separate and totally unnecessary "Bill of Rights" on its own, but the DCIA has its own problems. For example, the group says that it wants consumer interest groups to play a role in the group, but not until later. If consumer rights are so important, why not include them from the beginning?

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Filed Under: cable, p2p, p2p bill of rights
Companies: comcast

7 Comments

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Tim, 6 May 2008 @ 6:41pm

P2P Bill of Rights?
A bill of rights for P2P doesn't sound so bright of an idea after all...
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- Mark, 2 Apr 2009 @ 8:59am
  
  Re: P2P Bill of Rights?
  HI
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sourisvert, 6 May 2008 @ 7:01pm

well, consumers have this extremely annoying habit of fighting for their rights. Better to maintain them at a safe distance, and only invite them when all is decided. Very much like DRM, methinks.
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Guerrilla, 6 May 2008 @ 11:50pm

Guerrilla
Regardless of what happens, someone somewhere will come up with a way to bypass anything that is put in place to control you. History has shown this to be the case over an over again.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 7 May 2008 @ 5:24am

Newly formed, eh? How opportune.
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- Chip, 8 May 2008 @ 8:08am
  
  Re: DCIA
  The DCIA was formed over 4 years ago and has nearly 100 members. Please visit www.dcia.info to find out more.
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James, 7 May 2008 @ 5:45am

How about..
..a "we won't f**k with your bandwidth, that you're paying us for" bill of rights?

Bandwidth is what it gets down to, if P2P is really such a business issue for them why not come up with a business solution such as metered/tiered bandwidth plans?

Yes, Virginia it really is that simple. They obviously have an agenda since a tiered solution is both technically feasible and it would solve the issue.
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