Comcast Backed By NBC, Viacom In Network Neutrality Dispute

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) has found allies in its fight to convince the Federal Communications Commission that it was doing nothing wrong when it slowed customers' access to certain applications on its high speed Internet network.

Broadcasters NBC Universal Inc. and Viacom Inc. (VIA) filed comments at the FCC supporting Comcast's right to engage in reasonable network management.

The companies argued that if Internet network operators are not permitted to manage their networks it will hamper their abilities to fight the flow of pirated content on the Web.

"Reasonable network management practices are vital to combating the well- documented, unauthorized and illegal distribution of copyrighted material on the Internet," Viacom said in its filing.

Comcast has been accused by public interest groups, academics and software companies of slowing and even blocking subscribers' access to peer-to-peer file sharing applications on the Internet.

The applications allow the sharing back and forth of user-generated and other video content over the Web.

The company has acknowledged slowing access to the software, arguing that a small number of users are hogging too much bandwidth on its network using file sharing services, endangering the bulk of its customers' ability to use the Internet.

It has denied blocking access to the applications.

The two broadcasting giants said that the bulk of content that travels over file sharing software is pirated content.

In its filing, NBC estimated that up to 90% of it is illegal content.

Their concern, as expressed in their filings, is that the FCC will implement rules severely limiting network operators' ability to manage their networks at all.

This could inadvertently affect filtering or fingerprinting technologies currently being developed which would help in the fight against piracy on the Web, they said.

"Simply put, there is overwhelming and undisputed evidence that massive copyright infringement takes place on peer-to-peer file sharing networks and that BitTorrent and other P2P technologies are today used primarily to facilitate the exchange of a tidal wave of illegal content," said NBC Universal in its filing.

NBC Universal is owned by General Electric Co. (GE).

BitTorrent Inc. is the software application that Comcast stands accused of slowing and blocking.

Eric Klinker, the company's chief technology officer, said the broadcasters' argument risked endangering the very existence of peer-to-peer applications.

"Comcast is not blocking pirated content, they are blocking an entire class of applications," said Klinker.

While conceding that pirated content is distributed using BitTorrent, he said there was no way to monitor the traffic.

"We acknowledge that pirated content exists and that many protocols, BitTorrent included, are being used to distribute pirated material. But we don't track or monitor the use of our protocol."

Klinker noted that NBC Universal uses file-sharing software itself for its online video service, while Viacom is a partner of BitTorrent.

Vuze Inc., another file-sharing software company that is one of the groups that made the complaint to the FCC, said it was taking steps itself to combat pirated content.

"We are not opposed to efforts to try and interdict piracy at the network level," said Jay Monahan, general counsel at Vuze. "But, it would not be effective and would interfere with legitimate content which affects our business."

He said that software companies like Vuze were looking at ways to implement filtering technologies.

The FCC must decide if Comcast violated its existing rules on network neutrality, and if these rules need beefing up. It is the first time a major network operator has been accused in this manner.

The commission held a hearing at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., this week where a number of witnesses gave evidence about the issue.