They are blocking the ability of persons to seed torrents. If they were slowing down transfers for certain high-bandwidth protocols that would be one thing, however blocking the connection completely is something entirely different. In the end Comcast will be sued and they will lose. Obviously they believe that their losses in court will be less than the expense required to improve their infrastructure to the point that this would not be an issue. They are likely correct in this regard.

"The contract goes on to say that "all major" Internet service providers use traffic shaping, and that this is being done to protect users from "...network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service.""

Isn't that "traffic shaping" counter-productive to the person having their traffic shaped?

Yes, I understand that they are trying to prevent net hogs from impacting their more conservative users, but blocking legitimate services really only punishes people for the providers inadequacy.

The provider should promise a theoretical maximum throughput based on every subscriber sucking down files at the same time at that theoretical maximum. If they cannot provide that throughput, then their hard maximum cap is too high for their infrastructure to handle. Build the infrastructure to handle your proposed maximum cap with about triple the capacity so you can grow your subscriber base without impacting each users service. If you get near triple your existing subscriber base, either add onto the existing infrastructure enough capacity to handle triple again, or STOP TAKING CUSTOMERS!

comcast just acquired insight, my local isp... this is really nice

I have Comcast b/c the only other choice I have for high speed internet is 768K dsl. I had FiOS before I moved and boy to I miss it. Oh, the thing with Comcast is that I'm suppose to be getting 6MB download speed, but that rarely, if ever, happens, so now they say they'll throttle back the speed. I so go for it, make dsl an option for me. I sick of all cable companies they're all so full of $hit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU

So what exactly does shaping mean? If I have a 5 mbps connection, does that mean I have 5 mbps "burst" but that my throughput will start to degrade after that? Is this a way to make iTunes rentals inconvenient as a way to support Comcast's own OnDemand service?

As far as Flying Meat's suggestion to just build more infrastructure to support every user concurrently downloading the the max speed...congratulations, you just quadrupled the cost of your internet service!

Comcast Customer Service is still focused on customer satisfaction_

I download stuff too_ I don't actually "seed" torrents except when I'm downloading I allow an up stream_

But - every single time I have any issue with the speed of my connection - I am instantly on the phone complaining either to the Reps or Tech Support until they fix it_

Policy terms or not - I am paying for a 6-8Mps Connection and I expect to have that 99% of the time 24/7/365_ Period_ End of story_ So I will annoy them until I get it_

No customer DISSATISFACTION. I pay for a service and expect to get what I pay for. What they are doing now is telling everyone that they can slow down your connection when ever they feel like it. So they are no longer providing high speed band width anymore. Now they are providing low speed with an occasional boost when they feel it is appropriate. THIS IS B.S.!!!!

Get off Comcast, cancel your TV service as well. Show the other internet providers we want full service ALL THE TIME BECAUSE WE ARE PAYING FOR IT! Everyone write to your own service providers and let them know if they follow Comcast with this c*** that we will cancel are service too! If we let one of them get away with this c*** then they will all do the same thing and NONE OF US WILL HAVE HIGH SPEED INTERNET ANYMORE!!!! Yet we will still be PAYING FOR IT!!!

At least where I live. There is no alternative for cable TV or cable internet. It sucks, but I get a good price.