Comcast sued over BitTorrent throttling

The cable company limits speeds of peer-to-peer technology such as BitTorrent.

Comcast is facing a lawsuit by Jon Hart who says the company is using secret measures to limit his bandwidth which violates federal computer fraud laws, user contracts, and anti-fraud advertising statues.

He also seeks to certify the lawsuit as a class action, and to force Comcast to pay damages to himself and all Comcast internet subscribers.

The complaint begins that Comcast has forsaken its advertised affirmations of "lightning fast" and "mind-blowing" speeds, as well as "unfettered access to all the internet has to offer".

Hart alleges Comcast's limitation on peer-to-peer speeds constitutes a breach of contract as well as false and misleading advertising.

The filing asserts that Hart upgraded his internet service to Comcast's high-speed internet Performance Plus package in September 2007 to gain faster speeds specifically for the blocked applications in question. In the subscriber agreement, which he says makes up 22 pages of single-spaced text (with only 10-15 lines visible on the scroll box at one time), none of the terms stated that Comcast would impede or limit the blocked applications.

The result of the throttling, according to the complaint, is the loss of computer use and internet service.

Hart seeks for Comcast to pay restitution to restore all funds acquired by the means the court may find unlawful, plus pre- and post-judgement interest. He also asks for damages associated with any out-of-pocket costs associated with replacing the service.