The reason Comcast is in such trouble isn't because they were traffic shaping (though there has been a lot of noise about that in the past), it is because they were forging packets from both parties in the communication.
If Alice and Bob are communicating (via Bittorrent) Comcast would forge a connection reset packet that looked like it was from Alice and send it to Bob, and do the same thing from Bob to Alice. So both sides would think the connection has been closed. The problem with this (aside from the general WTF of it) is that it runs afoul of several wiretapping laws in the states. Hence litigation. The reason this isn't a open and shut issue is that ISPs haven't been prosecuted under these circumstances before, and the lawers need to convince the judges that: yes these laws do apply.
On a slightly different tact:
Several of the pundits that I listen to have pegged this as defensive measure against IPTV. Nowadays most people (in the states) are pulling down maybe 10-30 Gigs a month. But most people aren't watching 8 hours of TV quality video (let alone HD quality) video on their computer. An hour of HD programing from revision3 (one of my daily sources of video on the web) is about a Gig. 8 Gigs a day, 30 days a month, is 240Gigs. For one person, just for replacing their TV feed.
But most households don't have one person, they have somewhere between 2-4.
And so the other shoe drops, what happens when you go over? There are no plans in place that will allow you to pay more. The only option I have heard of is to buy a second line (ha!).
Addressing Blackaeronaut's comment on cost:
Japan is also one of the most densely populated countries there is. The cost per subscriber for DoCoMo to drag an OC48/OC96 line to an apartment complex is relatively cheap. The population densities in the States work against us, none of the last mile carriers want to lay fiber down. Because that would cut into their profits. I have only heard of a few building in NY and SF where the residents have gotten together and on a grass roots level purchased a business level OC12/OC24 from the local carrier. The cost of rewiring the building is not cheap, nor is the instillation of said line. But if everyone is on board, it can be done for cheaper than the standard DSL package per head.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
If Alice and Bob are communicating (via Bittorrent) Comcast would forge a connection reset packet that looked like it was from Alice and send it to Bob, and do the same thing from Bob to Alice. So both sides would think the connection has been closed. The problem with this (aside from the general WTF of it) is that it runs afoul of several wiretapping laws in the states. Hence litigation. The reason this isn't a open and shut issue is that ISPs haven't been prosecuted under these circumstances before, and the lawers need to convince the judges that: yes these laws do apply.
On a slightly different tact:
Several of the pundits that I listen to have pegged this as defensive measure against IPTV. Nowadays most people (in the states) are pulling down maybe 10-30 Gigs a month. But most people aren't watching 8 hours of TV quality video (let alone HD quality) video on their computer. An hour of HD programing from revision3 (one of my daily sources of video on the web) is about a Gig. 8 Gigs a day, 30 days a month, is 240Gigs. For one person, just for replacing their TV feed.
But most households don't have one person, they have somewhere between 2-4.
And so the other shoe drops, what happens when you go over? There are no plans in place that will allow you to pay more. The only option I have heard of is to buy a second line (ha!).
Addressing Blackaeronaut's comment on cost:
Japan is also one of the most densely populated countries there is. The cost per subscriber for DoCoMo to drag an OC48/OC96 line to an apartment complex is relatively cheap. The population densities in the States work against us, none of the last mile carriers want to lay fiber down. Because that would cut into their profits. I have only heard of a few building in NY and SF where the residents have gotten together and on a grass roots level purchased a business level OC12/OC24 from the local carrier. The cost of rewiring the building is not cheap, nor is the instillation of said line. But if everyone is on board, it can be done for cheaper than the standard DSL package per head.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy