Comcast Faces New Lawsuit Over P2P Blocking

Comcast Corp. has been hit with another class action lawsuit over its high-speed Internet service network management practices. The lawsuit filed by Gilbert Randolph LLP and several other law firms in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., alleges that Comcast engaged in unfair and deceptive businesses practices by promising “unfettered access to all . . . applications that the Internet has to offer” while blocking or impeding access to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing and other Internet applications. The lead plaintiff listed on the lawsuit is Robert Topolski, the software quality engineer who is credited with first discovering and making public Comcast's use of reset “flags” to terminate P2P communications. Mr. Topolski now is the chief technology consultant for Free Press and Public Knowledge. Gilbert Randolph filed similar lawsuits earlier this year in the District of Columbia, Illinois, California, and New Jersey.