14 DAY TRIAL // Jon Hart, a Comcast customer living in California, filed a lawsuit against his ISP, accusing it of blocking the BitTorrent downloads, an action which infringes the contract and the computer fraud laws, Wired reported today. The plaintiff said that he chose Comcast's services because he wanted to use the peer-to-peer file sharing applications which seem to be limited by the ISP. Moreover, Mr. Hart claims that Comcast's "Download at Crazy Speeds" campaign is false as the company wanted to attract more customers.
"Defendants have disseminated and continues to disseminate advertising, that they know or should reasonably know is false and misleading. This conduct includes, but is not limited to, promoting and advertising the fast speeds that apply to the Service without limitation, when, in fact, Defendants severely limit the speed of the Service for certain applications," it is mentioned in the complaint according to Wired.
"It further includes Defendant's misrepresentations that their customers will enjoy "unfettered access" to all internet applications, when, in fact, Defendants not only fetter certain applications, but completely block them. Defendants know or reasonably should know that this advertising is false and misleading."
Comcast is the second largest Internet Service Provider in the United States, with numerous customers all over the country. The company's representatives didn't say too many words about the complaints but it pointed to the main FAQ which states that the ISP will never restrict or block the access to any of the Internet services and technologies.
"Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites, VOIP applications like Vonage, and thousands of other applications online," the Comcast FAQ reads according to the same source.
"We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications."
Some time ago, it was rumored that Comcast was restricting the access to popular peer-to-peer file sharing application because lots of users access it and slowed down the entire network. Because of that, some users complained the BitTorrent downloads were limited, a move which could require less bandwidth and avoid affecting the browsing experience of the other customers not interested in file sharing clients.