Vuze Blog

Cox Cable Delaying Traffic: Comcast Revisited?

Like many of you, we’re watching with growing concern recent announcements by Cox Cable that they’ll be taking steps to classify different types of Internet traffic as  “time-sensitive” and “non-time-sensitive,” and may “delay” certain traffic deemed to be “non-time-sensitive.”   Squarely on the list of “non-time-sensitive” (read “second-class citizen”) is all traffic using peer-to-peer protocols.  That includes all bittorrent applications, including your Vuze application.   We take that personally, and think you should too.

Cox outlined their plans at a very high level in their recently published Congestion Management Policy.   The complete list of low priority uses includes:

• File Access (bulk transfers of data such as FTP)
• Network Storage (bulk transfers of data for storage)
• P2P (peer-to-peer protocols)
• Software Updates (managed updates such as operating system updates)
• Usenet (newsgroup related).

That means if you’re engaged in any of these apparently “second-class” activities and the network gets bogged down, you may see your connection slow — even though you’re paying the same price as everyone else for access. Cox’s announcement also notes that the low-priority list may change or expand in the future.  Of course, the one of these that hits home for us (and you) is “peer-to-peer.”

Here’s what concerns us.  While Cox may consider our content and business to be unimportant or of lower priority, all of the content we deliver through the Vuze HD Network is delivered using our bittorrent-protocol-based technology.    That means that when you’re downloading Vuze content using Vuze, whether its a PBS documentary, the latest episode of “Pink” or some great user published content, it will automatically be classified as “non-time-sensitive,” and thus may be subject to delay at Cox’s sole discretion.  Suffice it to say, our 10 million users who access over a petabyte of Vuze HD Network content every month care about “delay” of their content.

This is all both odd and troubling.  On the list of “time-sensitive” activities entitled to higher priority is “streaming video and audio.”  Apparently, Cox doesn’t know or perhaps doesn’t care that we offer a progressive download (“virtual streaming”) option for much of our content.   Like other streaming experiences, you push “Play” and within seconds the content begins playing for the user.  That’s the experience our users expect.  So it would appear that under the new Cox regime YouTube and Hulu (and of course Cox services) are high priority, while Vuze’s similar services are relegated to the back of the bus.

Granted, Cox’s new classification system does not appear to mean that content will be automatically “delayed,” but it’s unclear what the criterion will be for making the determinations of the nature and extent of any delay.  Nor is it clear what the actual impact will be on the Vuze user experience or others who enjoy the benefits of peer-to-peer technologies.  This greatly concerns us.  There’s no doubt that Cox would minimize such potential impact, but we are loath to trust the judgments of a network operator about what does or does not hurt our business, particularly when they too are in the content business.

It also remains to be seen whether Cox’s plan and actions fully comply with the standards enunciated in the FCC’s recent order against Comcast.  Some of you will recall that Vuze became involved last year in a similar controversy with Comcast.  In that case, Comcast was accused of improperly interfering with Internet traffic through the use of false reset packets, also known as the “man in the middle” technique.  Several consumer groups filed complaints at the FCC against Comcast, and Vuze filed a Petition for Rulemaking requesting the FCC to promulgate a set of clear rules that would govern “reasonable network management.”  Vuze even testified at the FCC’s first field hearing at Harvard University.

The FCC eventually came down hard on Comcast, finding that their use of false resent packets was an “unreasonable” network management technique and a violation of Federal law and policy.  In the Comcast case, the FCC found that Comcast’s interference with peer-to-peer protocols appeared to contravene the federal policy of “promot[ing] the continued development of the Internet” because that interference impedes consumers from “run[ning] applications . . . of their choice, … including the video programming made available by vendors like Vuze.”  [Comcast Order, p. 25]

It remains to be seen whether Cox’s techniques will withstand FCC scrutiny, particularly under a new FCC Chairman to be appointed by President Obama, a known supporter of net neutrality.

Not surprisingly, FreePress.net, one of the original complainants against Comcast, was quick to express concern over the Cox announcement:

As a general rule, we’re concerned about any cable or phone company picking winners and losers online. These kinds of practices cut against the fundamental neutrality of the open Internet. We urge the FCC to subject this practice to close scrutiny and call on Cox to provide its customers with more technical details about exactly what it’s doing.”

We join Free Press and others in calling for close scrutiny by the FCC of Cox’s activities affecting peer-to-peer traffic.  In the meantime, we will also be taking steps to monitor instances of actual interference with the delivery of our programming.  Fortunately, this task just got a bit easier thanks to the efforts of Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf, and Google who, working with MLab, recently made available online tools for measuring interference with bittorrent traffic.  We encourage all of you to use them and speak out about any irregularities.

Thanks for helping to keep Vuze and the Internet open and free.

Jay Monahan

General Counsel

16 Comments to Cox Cable Delaying Traffic: Comcast Revisited?

1. Mike M. on February 25th, 2009

   Just because a provider like Cox Cable pipes in the signal, doesn’t mean you have to accept the address they give you to access the internet, correct. As a brighthouse user in Indiana, I opened a free account with openDNS.com as a way to control content and block sites I don’t want my three kids going to. Would my provider be able to monitor me then?

2. ahem on March 19th, 2009

   Ofc your provider will be watching them. How do you think they sort out “transfer” if they are not closely monitoring to where you go? Which should be highly illegal, und against freedom of information act…but..u are in USA, and you said “bye-bye” to civil liberties long time ago…

3. bw on March 21st, 2009

   So basically if some jackass who wants to watch fart jokes on YouTube, he is a first class citizen… but if one wanted to download free and legal audiobooks via bt or usenet, they are a second class citizen.

   Wow, do we need any more proof that the dumb people are still winning in America?

   Thankfully COX is not my ISP, I hope they do not implement anything like this on my network. I am sorry to hear about this.

4. You on March 21st, 2009

   Just to let you know, Comcast does this as well so quite frankly I would not let your hopes ride on them unless they plan to make some drastic changes in their architecture.

5. Christopher on March 24th, 2009

   Comcast is still doing stuff like this stuff on a daily basis. My internet slows down my torrents from about 4pm to 4am where I live, and I have tracked it to Comcast ‘bandwidth throttling’ my torrents.
   This kind of stuff should be unacceptable and illegal, but the government won’t get off their butts to do something about it.

6. careuro75 on March 31st, 2009

   The perhaps not so bright response that I have is the seemingly never ending circularity of thinking which involves the business/economist reality of not exceeding the level of service neccessary for maintaining a demand
   versus the actual working class/laymen that also will only do the least action neccessary to mainain the employee/employer relationship.Some will aquire needs via word of mouth while others are perhaps exposed to just enough advertisement. Sadly there could be more services intending the greatest level of service possible and a better customer appeal.Although oftimes very costly, many would shift a problem into more capable and crafty hands.

7. Swimmer on April 5th, 2009

   I used to have Cox Communications. They think they are cyber police for some reason. I use Vuze all the time for torrents and they decided one day that I was torrenting stuff I shouldn’t of been downloading (movies) and decided to cut me off the internet. So, after I got back online with them… I basically used them as my ISP for about a week longer then switched to a different company that doesn’t act like cyber cops so I can do what I want again. lol

8. Morenicano on April 10th, 2009

   Can’t we all as citizens file a complaint against these companies? I mean I understand that there has already been something that has started with Comcast and the FCC, but if a huge number of America’s citizens stood up together against this, no one feels this wouldn’t help us?

9. C J Hanson on April 16th, 2009

   Agreed it was only last month all Talk Talk/AOL Users had their internet activities ruled by comcasts network filtering software SANDVINE - The FCC eventually came down hard on Comcast, finding that their use of false resent packets was an “unreasonable” network management technique and a violation of Federal law and policy. not soon enough and it will still go on the fact that they want to moniter the web at all goes against the whole design of the WWW bang goes your freedom of infomation again

10. C J Hanson on April 16th, 2009

    Oh forgot to add that it dsent matter who your isp is at some point it will probebly use the line of comcast leased through your isp therfore this issue affects all not just those who choose cox or comcast as there isp

11. texan on April 28th, 2009

    i have the same problem swimmer has with WOW. i dont know if they are a child of Cox or Timewarner, but they act the same. just the other nite, i received a server-to-client message from WOW saying they suspected me of illegal filesharing and that if i was suspected, not proven guilty of anything, just suspected again, that they would cut my service. Are you kidding me? this is a huge violation of privacy, and the internet was designed for filesharing, not for spying on your customers.

12. Alex on May 5th, 2009

    Cox comm is not the only company to do what comcast has been doing for a while.
    back in 2006 Time Warner Cable (TWC) BIG BIG cable in south decided to use a version of sandvine. until 2008 i didnt have too many issues, however they have recently began to use the RST function of sandvine and i cant get over 40Kbps on a daily basis without my modem, router locking up or my connection from TWC locking down to TEN Kbps for hours due to “packet throttling”

    usually when i ask for level 3 network manangement i get hung up on or transfered around followed by hours of call time.

    its all the cable companies. they have been living on a tech thats years old and NEEDS TO GO. look at the world outside the US. most modern countries are already intigrating fiber to all cities. is it REALLY that difficult to upgrade core areas to fiber? is it REALLY that difficult to not grease hands of politicians in southern states? TWC and many other cable companies are affraid of companies like verizon because they offer free open fiber supposedly. I cancelled my cable after two years of service, because they provided shady and down right evil services.

    in short

    CABLE NEEDS TO GO

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