Comcast, BitTorrent, and Network Neutrality
Chris Riley, Free Press
Thursday, February 12, 12:00 pm
Griswold Hall 110, Harvard Law School
This event is co-sponsored by the HLS Journal of Law and Technology.
In August of 2008, the Federal Communications Commission concluded its lengthy investigation into Comcast's high-speed Internet service practices with the release of an order declaring Comcast's practice of RST-packet BitTorrent blocking to be illegal and requiring Comcast to use only non-discriminatory network management practices. Comcast complied substantially with the order's obligations, but many questions remain open, with this specific proceeding and with the future of net neutrality policy in the FCC and in Congress. Free Press has led and will continue to lead the charge to promote non-discrimination as the foremost principle of net neutrality. Chris' presentation will begin with a brief overview of Free Press, and a brief history of the Comcast proceeding and other net neutrality legal efforts, and will then dive into a substantive policy discussion of present and future Congressional and Commission net neutrality proceedings.
About Chris
Chris Riley is the Policy Counsel at Free Press, and in that capacity provides legal assistance to Free Press policy, research, and campaign efforts, and represents Free Press on issues before the Federal Communications Commission, Congress, and federal appellate courts. Chris has significant experience with a variety of issues in telecommunications and technology law and policy, and has published numerous academic articles in computer science and in law dealing with networks and innovation. Prior to joining Free Press, Chris was employed as an Honors Program Attorney in the Wireline Competition Bureau at the FCC, as a summer associate at Ropes & Gray, LLP, in Boston, Massachusetts, and as a legal intern at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, California. Chris is a former student fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law school, and former editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. Chris holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.