One cable company to rule them all

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 00:53:17 -0500
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From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Subject: One cable company to rule them all


One cable company to rule them all
Comcast's bid to buy Disney raises a specter even scarier than the
witch in Snow White: A Mickey Mouse Internet.

Editor's note: Ninth in a series on the consolidation of power and
ownership in the media landscape.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Farhad Manjoo

March 17, 2004  |  If you're looking for a perfect example of the
limitless possibility of the Internet, the true, world-shrinking
power of a fast, always-on network, you might find it at George's
house. George is a British expat who lives in Philadelphia with his
wife and kids and father. (We'll call him George, because, for
reasons that will be explained, he doesn't want his real name
published.) George loves America, but he also can't shake the feeling
that he's not fully at home here; something about the place just
doesn't click with him.

"Very few Brits ever get totally assimilated into the American
culture," he says. So at George's house, the Internet functions as a
portal to a world left behind. George and his family watch the BBC
News on the Web three times a day. George, who spent two decades in
the British film industry, makes digital movies of his family, and he
sends the movies over the Internet to the extended family back home;
they, in turn, send films of the mother country. "We use the Net as a
lifeline," George says. "For anybody for whom this isn't their native
country, you'd understand."

But Comcast, the company that provides George's high-speed Internet
service, didn't understand. Last August, the company sent him a
letter telling him to quit it -- he was using the Internet too much.
The firm said he was violating Comcast's "acceptable use" policy,
that he was somehow abusing his service. This surprised George,
because as far as he knew he wasn't doing anything illegal or
unseemly online -- "We're not using porn sites," he says -- and his
contract with the firm didn't spell out any limits on his Internet
use. When he called the company, it gave him the "runaround" --
nobody would tell George specifically what he should do to bring his
use back in line with Comcast's policies, other than that, as a
general matter, he ought to consider using the Internet much, much
less.

...

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/03/17/comcast/

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