ReasonedResponse.com

I've always had a lot of respect for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and have worked with them on a lot of issues affecting the Internet.  Even today, we jointly operate the Subpoenadefense.Org web site, which helps victims of the RIAA and MPAA assault on their own customers to find decent legal representation.

Still and all, they do occasionally take a position that I can't support, as when they attack companies that assist the government in tracking down and stopping terrorists.  Or when they launch an dubious and nasty campaign against Comcast for its network management practices.

I'm not alone in that regard.  Over at the Register ("Biting the hand that feeds IT"), author, blogger and network engineer Richard Bennett dissected the EFF position on Comcast from a technical standpoint.  His bottom line:

"So why does the EFF complain? They're aware that file-sharing is troublesome for cable networks, but remain fully committed to the religious view that the internet's protocols were born fully-formed and inviolate in the mind of a virgin engineer in Bethlehem some 40 years ago, IETF discussions to the contrary notwithstanding.

Like many advocacy groups dealing with technical subjects, the EFF represents the view that technologies are meant to liberate the human spirit from the chains of exploitation, hence it's bewildered by the sight of people using the internet for such mundane purposes as downloading porn, bullying, and stealing music.

So it manufactures a fake crisis of network management to avoid the truth about the inanities of the internet. Problem solved."

I'll can't ascribe motives to the EFF, but would make two comments.  First, now that the dust has settled and the knee-jerk pundits have quieted down, it becomes clear that Comcast's policies not only do not block downloads over BitTorrent, they act to speed such downloads for the majority of users.  Second, a year ago I summed up the supporters of Netowrk Neutrality as a "coalition of the deranged."  I've seen nothing in the year since to change that opinion, and am deeply saddened to see the EFF join their ranks.