The news this week was dominated by the FCC hearing into Comcast's practice of "delaying" BitTorrent uploads. This practice has reinvigorated the net neutrality debate, as distribution companies such as Vuze (Azureus) charge the tactic harms thier business model and gives Comcast an unfair advantage. Although the testimony was intriguing, the real story is what happened during the hearing.

On Monday, Comcast was grilled by the FCC panel who demanded answered from the cable company's representation. During the opening statements, Rep. Rep. Ed Markey warned Comcast not to turn BitTorrent into "BitTrickle".

"Such intercession into a user's access to the Internet should not result in...the transformation of BitTorrent into BitTrickle."

However the next day, it was discovered that Comcast had paid individuals to wait in line prior to the hearing. Comcast contends it only paid "a few" people to wait in line, yet as it turned out, hundreds of otherwise willing participants were turned away. The FCC apparently wasn't pleased by this blocking tactic, and is considering another hearing.

Moving on to the digital music scene, the NPD Group found that people are buying more music, however are spending less. This apparent dichotomy is actually very easy to explain. Digital music costs significantly less than physical CDs, and with tracks at 99 cents and full albums around $5, one can purchase a greater volume than in years past yet still pay comparatively little. The music industry may have created a quasi-successful digital music market, however there's simply not enough demand to make up for the impending death of the CD.

No weekly wrap up would be complete without a mention of The Pirate Bay. Last week, TorrentFreak reported that Yahoo! had blocked The Pirate Bay from some of its global websites. A search for The Pirate Bay on Yahoo.com would not direct the end user to the BitTorrent tracker's website, however an identical search on Yahoo.se would. Many publications, including Slyck, attempted to obtain an explanation from Yahoo!, however none was ever given. Were they simply testing the waters or was it a software/hardware glitch?

Date: 2008-03-01 Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1671