$16 million settlement over Comcast's P2P throttling nets the affected $16

More than two years after information about Comcast's data delaying techniques came to light, a class action lawsuit over the issue has come to a close with a settlement of $16 million and no statement of wrongdoing from the cable giant. That means Comcast continues to tout its newer bandwidth management protocols and those of you that used Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack or Gnutella between April '06 and December '08 and/or Lotus Notes on the service anytime in the summer of 2007 can head over to the settlement website to either opt out of the class action or receive a $16 check. So is that enough cash to make up for the time wasted waiting for Naruto fansubs, Gutsy Gibbon images and the like to finish downloading?

[B3astofthe3ast Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:25PM]

It's a trap! Sign up and the FBI will be knocking on your door!

[shadowj0 Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:39PM]

@B3astofthe3ast

Hey, for the million people who will get $16 out of this, this is their way to... oh, FBI... jail... shit, will that $16 get me out of jail?

[plasticbiker Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:49PM]

@B3astofthe3ast
There are legal P2P's out there. Like getting the latest build of Ubuntu or non-copywritten videos.

[B3astofthe3ast Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:55PM]

@plasticbiker I know there are plenty of legitimate uses for P2P, it was a joke. However, we all know that most of P2P is illegal.

[J2800 Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:33PM]

@plasticbiker

Yeah but Ubuntu sucks so much, it SHOULD be illegal.

[Slick Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:54PM]

@J2800

Tool

[wack Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:49PM]

@B3astofthe3ast

Our star fighters can't repel fire of that magnitude!

[saturnblackhole Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:44AM]

@J2800 im building a time machine to go back in time so i can falcon punch your mother.

[dcoke Posted Dec 26th 2009 3:31AM]

@B3astofthe3ast
Oh Admiral Ackvar isn't it always a trap?

[shukero Posted Dec 26th 2009 6:48AM]

@B3astofthe3ast LOL.

[realar Posted Dec 26th 2009 4:05PM]

@shadowj0

I could be wrong but I am sure it should read $16 cheque instead of check in the article. Not that I want to be fussy or anything though.

[MJGAMER 1991 XBL Posted Dec 26th 2009 4:17PM]

@B3astofthe3ast

Only 1 person has been convicted for using P2P so far, so I wouldn't worry about it. Then again, I think he had to pay like $30,000 for each file.

[realar Posted Dec 26th 2009 4:17PM]

No I stand corrected, Is right, US English Version.

[DirkDickbutt Posted Dec 26th 2009 5:10PM]

What's the point of Ubuntu? It's an average-consumer aimed OS that's shittier than Winders and OS X. Install Gentoo or Fedora or some other real distro instead.

[reebokshoes Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:28PM]

comcast is a big oxymoron
they give you "powerboost"
yet, they throttle your internet..
am i wrong? anyone care to explain this to me?

[Papa G Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:00AM]

@reebokshoes
Haha yea that's what's been going through my mind too...

[wako Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:05AM]

@reebokshoes


i always found that ironic too. i called comcast before and asked them why they were throttling my connection and the only response i got was, "throttle? like that of a car?"

[El Capitan Obviouso Posted Dec 26th 2009 1:40AM]

Definition: comcast
Pronunciation: \'krap\
Function: noun, vulgar slang
Etymology: Old French crappe, Medieval Latin crappa
1 : excrement
2 : of cheap or second-rate quality

Definition: comcast out
Pronunciation: \'krap out\
Function: verb
1 : to fail to function properly
2 : to defecate on one's users with joy

[dcoke Posted Dec 26th 2009 3:36AM]

@reebokshoes
I agree I hate and despise comcast and have tried to no success to get my mother to switch to satellite, since comcast out here is really buggy; and over priced for the shit service you get. My picture goes out/ buggy at least ten times a day, and it's like playing Russian roulette with the on-demand feature, will it work or won't it? Though i have yet to really experience the slow-down in speed for my internet and i loves me my naruto fansubs.

[CaramelZappa Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:34PM]

Considering their rates and the fact that most people have been using them for years or don't have an option to switch providers I'd say that's a pretty hollow victory.

[questionexclamation Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:36PM]

oh crap...they know about the naruto fansubs

[Alexster404 Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:37PM]

http://www.p2pcongestionsettlement.com/index.htm

the site to claim your cash money

y'all gonna have to wait till January 4

[TravisAxel Posted Dec 25th 2009 9:54PM]

One slap on the wrist and $16 million dollars later and my episode of bleach STILL hasnt finished downloading!

[coolbho3000 Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:07PM]

I want to exclude myself and sue them myself

[smartmouth Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:23PM]

@coolbho3000

My god, if i can uprank you any further I would.

I wish engadget would develop a system that if a comment got enough upranks, and was so awsome, the comment would automatically change to courier new and increase font size to 72, and the little strip that says highest ranked would change to say "THE BEHEMOTH".

[wako Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:07AM]

@smartmouth

im going to go ahead and second this guys idea of what engadget should do about the ranking of comments...

[weirdo557 Posted Dec 26th 2009 1:57AM]

@wako
a hearty third from me

[Callanish Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:27PM]

Well at least the lawyers won in the end and that's all that matters.

[sweet greggo Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:33PM]

@(Unverified)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the lawyers cut was a little more than $16. Seriously there should be limits on this shit, like no more than 10% of the total settlement or something for the lawyers. They're the only parties that truly benefit from these suits.

[Offensive Bias Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:20PM]

@sweet greggo

It's not like the people filing the lawsuit didn't know what they were going to get and what the lawyers would be getting if they won.

[BigD145 Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:44PM]

@sweet greggo 10% would be $1.6 million. I'm sure they'd be good with that. How about we cut them down to 1% and give every user cash plus a month or two of free access?

[Wwhat Posted Dec 26th 2009 7:52AM]

@Offensive Bias
A settlement of a mere 16 million and a statement of 'no wrongdoing' I'd describe as losing, and those lawyers that signed that settlement should be fired, since if a company like comcast is willing to settle it means you got them by the balls and then it's not a good time to say "you know what? Let's settle where you pay us a dime and we agree to claim you didn't do anything wrong".

[sweet greggo Posted Dec 26th 2009 10:17AM]

@(Unverified)

Somehow I get the feeling the lawyers made off with more than 1.6 million out of this deal. isn't the normal cut around 30-40%?

[sweet greggo Posted Dec 26th 2009 10:18AM]

@Offensive Bias

You must be a lawyer.

[paul34 Posted Dec 26th 2009 5:13PM]

@(Unverified)

Do any of you guys realize that if you imposed such rules, that lawyers probably wouldn't even do this in the first place? Then all you have is an unlikely hope that the FCC will save you. Law firms aren't charities, they're businesses just like everyone else.

[Al Capa Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:10PM]

I like the illustration!!!

[Al Capa Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:12PM]

@Al Capa Btw it says 'to either opt out of the class action or receive a $16 check'. That means people who decide to pursue the class action suit will receive $16??

[brianbobcat Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:48AM]

@Al Capa I like the idea, but what's a guy need to do around here to get a quality image? 20kb? I'm seeing all sorts of artifacts in and around the "C", the heart, and the Bit Torrent logo. What'd you make this in MS paint and export the lowest res jpg you could? I mean heck, the image entitled "ps3-kids-christmas" for the Christmas gifts story is more than double this one.

Maybe I'm just picking hairs, but what about a nice SVG file? Vectors are where it's at.

-Brian

[shinrasboy Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:18PM]

Whatever, I just port forwarded and got my stuff anyway.

[Randomness Posted Dec 26th 2009 12:46AM]

@shinrasboy port forwarding has nothing to do with them throttling bw. that would make no difference...

[Smurf Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:38PM]

Nice slap on the wrist. $16 per person? How about comp-ing a month of cable internet service and new legislation requiring cable companies to fully disclose bandwidth management, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 per end user?

[Pupitmiser Posted Dec 26th 2009 2:27AM]

@Smurf Great point! I'd be all for that!

[BigD145 Posted Dec 26th 2009 2:33PM]

@Smurf
What?! That's not how free-market Capitalism works. Shame on you for trying to take money away from businesses.

/sarcasm

[paul34 Posted Dec 26th 2009 5:14PM]

@(Unverified) Actually, lawsuits like this are exactly how a free society works.

Corporate collusion with big government that ensures such monopolies stay intact and such unfair rules can be imposed are aspects of an unfree society.

[mrpaco Posted Dec 26th 2009 3:16AM]

The "and/or Lotus Notes" gets me. Where did that come in? Next they'll throttle my Outlook...

[djlee1999 Posted Dec 26th 2009 3:47AM]

Next thing they'll probably bitch n moan about is you're watching too many streaming Netflix movies in which you have legitimately paid for.

[ImDaIllest Posted Dec 26th 2009 5:14AM]

so this is their idea of giving back... by trapping us! your power boost isnt any good if you throttle my bandwidth... ugh idiots!

[Hazdaz Posted Dec 26th 2009 5:42AM]

Just remember guys, that this is going to be the same company that will own NBC and countless other cable stations very shortly.

We are screwed whether we have ComCrap Cable or Internet service or not.

.

[CA Posted Dec 26th 2009 7:47AM]

Oh Engadget, you slay me.

[surgex Posted Dec 26th 2009 10:13AM]

Why did they settle? That's fucked up -- so they can give u 16$ and continue to throttle ur bw? Fuck that.