Friday article links

Comcast P2P Critic Launches Class-Action Bid [Multichannel News]

He's been the source of a complaint filed with the FCC regarding cable operator Comcast's network management practices, now he's decided to file a class action lawsuit against Comcast. Robb Topolski, who has become an outspoken critic of network management practices and the effect they have on his use of peer-to-peer file transfers, has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Oregon alleging that Comcast misrepresented their broadband Internet service as "the fastest Internet connection."

Comcast contends, in statements made previous to this lawsuit, that their broadband service allows all applications to access the Internet and they use network management to ensure a quality broadband experience for all subscribers.

I've made similar statements here previously. Reasonable network management does ensure that all network users have the bandwidth to enjoy their Internet experience - including P2P users.

You can read my responses to comments made by Topolski about network management here and here. I'll be following this litigation as it develops, and I'll update you here.

Complaining Bloggers Have a Cable Company’s Ear [New York Times]

The New York Times has published an article today about Comcast's efforts to reach out to its customers on blogs, Twitter and social networking sites. This is the most detailed article that I've seen on Comcast's outreach efforts. They currently have 7 employees monitoring customers' online comments and responding to complaints, but that number will soon grow to 10. The article also details some funny anecdotes about customers who thought they were complaining into the abyss when they posted on a blog about Comcast, then they receive an immediate response from the company with an offer to help.

Comcast is obviously working to institutionalize this format of customer service, and I hope the positive attention they've received spawns similar customer service systems throughout the cable industry.

Broadband to reach 77% of U.S. households by 2012, Gartner says Network World

A new study is projecting that 77% of U.S. households will have a broadband Internet connection in four years. Compared to the deployment of telephone and electrical service at the turn of last century, there really is no comparison in the speed of adoption of broadband. With such widespread access to broadband and this projected percentage of broadband subscribers, advocates of additional government regulation to provide "access" to the Internet seem to have a solution in search of a problem.

Hasbro Notches Triple-Word Score Against Scrabulous With ‘Lawsuit’ [NYT Bits Blog]

I guess I spoke too soon a few days ago when I mentioned that the manufacturers of the popular Scrabble board game were launching a version of their game as an application on the Facebook social networking site but were not taking legal action against a similar application designed by two Indian web entrepreneurs. According to the New York Times, Hasbro (the company that owns the rights to Scrabble) filed a federal copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against the programmers of Scrabulous.