Lawsuit: Comcast is a 'totalitarian' business

Ars Technica reports that we now have the first lawsuit against Comcast for its throttling practices. One Sanford Sidner, apparently a heavy P2P user, says that his service will often "slow to a crawl" when using file-sharing applications and that he feels "betrayed" by Comcast's actions.

"I'll bet most paying customers out there have no idea that Comcast is secretly blocking and slowing down their high-speed Internet service," Sidner said in a statement. "It cuts at the heart of the service we all purchased."

More than a dishonest or manipulative business, Comcast is nothing less than a Fascist entity, Sidner's complaint asserts.

"Comcast's clandestine techniques are similar to those used by totalitarian governments to censor the use of the Internet," reads a copy of the complaint seen by Ars Technica. "No doubt Comcast would characterize this behavior as illegal and malicious hacking if perpetrated by others on Comcast and its customers."

For its part, Comcast continues to parse exactly what words are OK to use for its practice. "We did not have TCP resets with THAT protocol!" Or as Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas puts it, "Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise."