RSSCanada investigates P2P blocking, finds it just about everywhere
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published January 21, 2009, 6:35 PM
With the United States' FCC continuing to crack down on Comcast, the Canadian government is finally starting to take action, too, against ISPs that slow down Internet traffic.
Newly released results of an investigation by the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reveal that all major ISPs in Canada are interfering with network traffic.
Canadian ISPs Bells, Rogers, Eastlink, and Cogeco all specifically admitted to slowing P2P traffic.
Shaw, another big ISP, conceded to the agency that its customers are getting slowed down, but in confidence and without specifically pointing to P2P.
The CRTC's investigation was driven directly by charges from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) -- a band of small ISPs that rent portions of Bell's networks -- that Bell's previously admitted use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology amounts to unfair competition.
Google then jumped into the fray, allying with CAIP and adding the legal argument that Bell's DPI use violates Canada's telecommunications law.
"From consumer, competition and innovation perspectives, throttling applications that consumers choose is inconsistent with a content- and application-neutral Internet, and a violation of Canadian telecommunications law, which forbids unfair discrimination and undue or unreasonable preferences and requires that regulation be technologically and competitively neutral," Google's lawyers wrote in July.
Meanwhile, back in the US, the FCC in August ordered US service provider Comcast to stop blocking P2P traffic by the end of the year and change its network management policies in order to avoid an immediate court injunction. At the beginning of 2009, Comcast sent a letter to the FCC contending that the company no longer slows or blocks P2P applications.
FCC scrutiny of Comcast hasn't stopped, though. Later this month, Comcast got a letter from the FCC questioning, among other things, why the company regards its VoIP services as separate and distinct from its Internet services.
Canada's CRTC, however, hasn't yet moved beyond the data collection phase. It's still unclear yet whether the Canadian agency will follow the FCC's lead and demand an end to P2P blocking.
The CRTC are a bunch of toothless bungling idiots who are basically in the back pocket of Bell and Rogers. They rubber stamp anything those two companies table, sight unseen. Look for them to take eight months or so to "gather information" and then say that the two companies concerned can do whatever they want.
If there was anything approaching competition up here in the broadband market, that government body would be forced to have more teeth and furthermore, the two companies named would be out of business because they simply would not be able to compete at the price point and utilizing the business tactics (broadband shaping, charging more money while removing services, implementing caps, etc.) they have come to "enjoy".
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|TCP
He's Canadian, so he wont see "change".
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|This fight is all about controling the future of media delivery. Media companies want/need to control any form of media delivery.
Google fighting for the consumer? Not so.. they want it open because they see themselfs as the new media provider.
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|I come here more for the comments than the actual story! It's entertaining and also very enlightening!
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|It is Canada, with no anti-monopoly laws, companies like Rogers, Bell, etc can do whatever they want. Like the switch from "unlimited" internet to 60Gb limit on their "High Speed" offerings. Since there is no competition in local markets (where there is always a single service provider) there is no way to get past this limit unless you want to pay much more for 100Gb limit with a bit higher download speed.
CRTC is a liberal, protective organization formed (and I bet controlled) by the telco monsters. Because of CRTC we don't have any online video rentals (except Apple TV and Bell's own expensive service). We don't have Skype-In service with local numbers. We have to pay "basic cable" fee for some sh*tty amateur video channels created by Rogers, etc... We don't have any foreign cellular network providers... everything related to tele-communication in Canada is anti-competitive and does not force any CUSTOMER protection, only protection for big industry players.
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|More likely its a conservative one if they let the companies get away with everything. Just look at the USA for an example of this.
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|When you blame conservatism for *everything*, it not only gets old, but your opinion means less and less as you appear more and more to be nothing but a "Conservatives did it!" troll.
...which we all know you are, but you could at least *try* to hide it behind some semblance of actual thought or reasoning.
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|STFU, Tool. Morons like you don't have any valid opinions. All you deserve is pity. You're an automatic loser. You're also a hypocrite since I've seen you, and foxfart, do worse to others on here.
I have 28 years of evidence that proves what I said about conservatives. Like you they hate America and will sell it out to the lowest bidder. Of course you're too stupid to see this so shut up.
The last time they had any real power before Reagan was just before the Great Depression. Guess what is happening now after 28 years of their policies? The Democrats have to come in and fix their mess yet again while they dine and dash......
They were no different in Canada under MulRUINey. Now his party no longer exists at the federal level because they were voted almost completely out of existence (Out of the two that had been elected one retired soon after and the other joined the Liberal Party.)
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|*laughing my ****ing a** off*
28 years and you *still* think Conservatives caused the depression and our current crisis? (or that any single "faction" was solely responsible)
Go back to school and take some economics classes, pup. As usual, you are utterly clueless in how government policies affect the economy and which policies lead to the current crisis and the past depression.
I bet you still think the gov handing "stimulus" checks to everyone will help the economy.... What a joke. Scratch that. "think" is too strong a word. You just heard it from one of your talking heads and take it as gospel, you obviously don't think about anything.
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|SJC..
Since "Change" has come, let me know when you get your check so you can pay us all off on charges of cruel and unusual punishment, namely forcibly publicizing your false ideals of government.
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|SjC001,
Steve. Can I call you Steve?
Lets look at my neighborhood of the day link.
http://tinyurl.com/de69fv. I like the Birds Eye view.
You're one of the funniest ( and saddest) examples of what's wrong with some people.
Making the statement, "Morons like you don't have any valid opinions. You're an automatic loser. You're also a hypocrite" just shows me that you hang out on the Kool-Aid sites and get your "news" (lol) from blogs that you take in as "fact". When someone voices a dissenting view, you plug your ears, and at the same time yell na na na na na , so you can't hear them. You're good (used to be good) at hiding behind your keyboard, with no reason, or clear original thought. You're probably one of those people I see online that think America bombed it's own buildings on 9-11 because some guy told you they did.You sound like a bitter shell of what your parents attempted to make into a respectable member of the community, but instead got an insecure piece of clay that anyone can mold into the extreme views that you currently have. I'm sure that when Bush was President you were throwing a party every time one of our troops was killed because it made Bush look bad. Sure he screwed some stuff up, but I wasn't rooting against our country for political gain like you do. I pity you and your family because they will suffer when you "mold" them into people like you.
Steve I'm going to give you a call, so we can discuss your "issues" It's still (780) 476-4173, right?
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|LOL... Harsh. :-)
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|Do on to others..You know the rest
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|Conservatives aren't intelligent enough to cause the Depression; greedy businessmen who went too far over their heads did that worthiness. Waitaminute, didn't the banks just...
Everything old is new again. :) :) ;)
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|"Before they do unto you"?
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|*laughing*
Yeah, those democrats and their "affordable housing" "guaranteed" slush funds had *nothing* to do with it, right?
Blame conservatives, or when that fails, the corporations.. Easy way out. Just keep playing the victim... How cute.
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|Very little in the face of running up HUGE margins with nothing to back them and then...
WHOOPS!!!!
"Margin Call!!!!!!"
Capitalism at its finest.
Don't get me wrong - Capitalism in moderation is a good thing, as is Socialism. However, whenever there are no checks and balances as in, say,m Your Banking System, we have things like the Great depression and the current mess. We have more regulation - and thus have less angst.
I saw what happened with Comcast and cheered. Unfortunately, up here the broadband providers (all two of them) are a law unto themselves.
You have to understand how the government works up here. Governments come and go but the Mandarins, the snivel servants who really run things, remain. THEY hold the real power. What does that mean? The CRTC has long been nothing more than a mouthpiece for the telcos and broadband providers. someone in there, I'd hazard just a guess, is making a really kewl living doing that. Data collection my hairy azz. It's just a dumb show for the people. As I pointed out elsewhere, they'll take a year to "gather data", find nothing and move on. The same thing happened with gas prices, never mind the fact that prices raise and fall in lockstep regardless of gas vendor across the city *within half an hour*. That means that EVERY gas station in this city will be within a cent (a cent!!!) of each other in price when the prices do change. Scary, yes? And yet, no collusion was found. Nope. None. Doesn't happen. Never. Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain.
Yup - the Mandarins remain - it matter naught whether Conservatives, Liberals or the New Democrats are in charge.
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