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Update below. Cable-TV and Internet provider Comcast is fighting back against customers who are rampant file sharers, TorrentFreak says. Reportedly the broadband Internet service provider has slowly ramped up monitoring of peer-to-peer network traffic, and now, using traffic-management services, it's preventing BitTorrent users from connecting to anyone outside the Comcast network. This would almost be commendable if its motivation was to crack down on piracy, but TorrentFreak suggests that Comcast is just being cheap. One anonymous Internet engineer says that just because you pay for a connection, doesn't mean you actually get to abuse it. Or, some might say, actually get to use it. What's next? Policing online-video sites, or bandwidth-intensive real-time videogames? You get what you pay for — except when you don't.

Update: Comcast says it does not throttle BitTorrent traffic. A representative told Silicon Alley Insider that Comcast does use various technologies to manage its network, but the company does not throttle or block BitTorrent or any application.