U.S.: Comcast Is Pretending to be You
copyfight, networks No Comments »Super interesting post in Susan Crawford’s blog about how Comcast was flagging users computers packages with wrong data, for stopping connections:
“So when “you” the Comcast subscriber were clicking links that were part of a Bittorrent transaction, Comcast was slapping an RST flag on your packets. And any packets crossing the Comcast network that were coming from the “outside” but were part of this conversation were also having the RST flag slapped on them as they crossed into Comcast territory. Neither user had any idea this was happening. They could just tell that things were moving really slowly and then stopping, as both machines politely agreed to reset themselves - thus cutting the conversation off.
It’s as if as soon as you entered a room an enormous “Loser” tag was stuck on your forehead unbeknownst to you. Sure, you could continue to circulate, but no one would talk to you. Or, if that’s too awkward, try this: it’s as if someone else that sounded like you got on the phone as you were talking to your mother and said “We need to hang up right now.” “
