By Roberto Galoppini
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-08-08
Yesterday I mentioned that the EFF has just released "Switizerland", an open source software aimed at to detect the modification or injection of packets of data by ISPs.
Switzerland detects changes made by software tools believed to be in use by ISPs such as Sandvine and AudibleMagic, advertising systems like FairEagle, and various censorship systems. Although currently intended for use by technically sophisticated Internet users, development plans aim to make the tool increasingly easy to use.
Switzerland was released few hours before the Federal Communications Commission took action against Comcast for violating the FCC's net neutrality principles interfering with its subscribers' use of BitTorrent to share files over the Internet.
Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, said:
The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs interfering with your Internet connection. [..] Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit.
The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to uphold the complaint against Comcast. The decision requires Comcast to end such blocking this year.
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