Comcast Takes Steps to Block P2p Users

As an author, I've seen a lot of pirate sites use P2P as a way of distributing books that either myself, or other authors, lose money due to the illegal distribution of our work. So a part of me is cheering on Comcast, but even then I'm aware that the steps Comcast has taken to block P2P users from sharing complete files could have a knock on effect for legitimate users.

I would love to see the pirate sites and those who hand out copies of work without consent, shut down. It hits me directly. It hits a lot of authors directly. And quite frankly those doing it either don't care, or think we're multi millionaires so it won't matter. We're not. Many authors are small fish in the ocean and we're trying to earn a legitimate living through our work. Piracy hits us directly where it hurts. In the pocket.

Comcast has taken steps to actively interfere with P2P sharing. And if the technology they are using is applied in a wide spread manner through other ISP's then the effect could be a dramatic one for P2P users. It would be a crippling blow to users of EDonkey, Bit Torrent and Gnutella users. While these are primarily known for sharing, illegally, copywritten information, files and entertainment Bit Torrent has been emerging as a way of sharing legitimate files and legal content, often for business users.

So what's the answer?

Could the makers of Bit Torrent and other systems, take steps to prevent illegal files from being shared?

And if they could would that then stop people like Comcast from blocking the file sharing program from being used to its full extent?

I'm honestly not sure. This hasn't been done to protect against theft, but rather to prevent a small body of users from 'clogging' the ISP's bandwidth.

Currently Comcast is claiming they are not blocking the use of any applications such as Bit Torrent, but in P2P users exchange files with each other, one persons upload is another's download, and Comcast's technology kicks in, though not uniformly, when one Bit Torrent User attempts to share a file with another, if either are using Comcast. Each PC gets a message, invisible to the user, that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. Basically telling it to hang up. The interference affects all types of file sharing through this system.

It doesn't know if you're an artist sending a completed file to a publisher, or a pirate spreading someone else's work without consent. Other ISP's have attempted to block some file sharing applications by "Port filtering" which is easily circumvented. So just what knock on effect this will have if the method Comcast is using is copied by other ISP's is anyone's guess. How badly will this affect legitimate businesses who use file sharing?

What about freelancers who use it to send completed work, be it art, written form, or movies, perhaps even audio reports? Or those who are working freelance on game related material? Or is the net slowly taking a step into a two tear system? That's been one of the concerns of the net neutrality movement, which sprang to the headlines when AT&T suggested it would like to charge some companies for preferential treatment due to heavy traffic and other concerns. So is this the first step?

Only time will tell.