With all this talk of Comcast and Canadian Internet service providers throttling file-sharing connections, serial entrepreneur and twinkle-toes Mark Cuban has decided, in big, bold letters, that ISPs should "BLOCK P2P NOW." Although he's not a Comcast subscriber, he supports its crusade to rid the Internet of "P2P freeloaders" because he doesn't want them eating up all his bandwidth. (As does Valleywag. Don't like it? Lay your own cable, pikers. Cuban is a billionaire from selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo, and could actually afford to take our advice.) But we're curious why he's suddenly decided he has a problem with peer-to-peer software.

A number of consumer groups are petitioning the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every customer affected by their BitTorrent-throttling practices. The FCC has said in the past that service providers can't "block" customers from using certain applications or websites, but it hasn't enforced that policy. Comcast has stated that they aren't "blocking" data transmissions, but are delaying them. Angry users aren't seeing much of a difference. We still think that government regulation is not the answer. You don't like what Comcast is doing? Let your wallet do the talking — change providers or lay your own fiber, bub. Or, considering that Comcast was caught blocking a digital version of the Bible, perhaps divine intervention is what called for. Down with the infidels! (Photo by AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

Comcast's profit dropped 54 percent to $560 million on $7.8 billion in sales. That's what happens when you offer lame excuses after getting caught triple-playing around with its customers' Net connections. [AP]

Comcast has gotten a bitch-slap from Congressman Rick Boucher. Quick recap: Users said Comcast was screwing up file-sharing downloads via BitTorrent but no one believed them. Then the Associated Press did their own report, trying to download the Bible but failing. Comcast blundered through a denial, calling the wire report "web gossip." And it might get sued. All that and a pissed-off Congressman too? Not a good week for Philadelphia's cable guys.

New York Times writer Brad Stone was on the phone with a pair of Comcast execs and experienced some technical difficulties. First, he was disconnected suddenly. Then, two minutes after calling back, the call was interrupted and Stone was inexplicably connected to the wife of another Comcast employee, who was trying to call her husband at work. After sitting in silence talking nonstop for 15 minutes, figuring the lack of response was just the Stone-cold Timesman's attempt to make them sweat, the Comcasters called him back and lamely theorized that maintenance was being performed on their phone system. This must be part of the "best broadband experience" that Comcast works so hard to provide. [Bits]

A reader emailed Comcast to complain about its blocking the Bible and received back a typical PR-speak response. Within was this gem: "We have a responsibility to manage our network to ensure that our customers have the best broadband experience possible." Aha! I hadn't realized the "best broadband experience" excluded BitTorrent. That's Comcastic! Also a nice touch: Dismissing a story that ran over the Associated Press wire service as "web gossip." The full email after the jump.

It was only last week that Comcast was getting called the Antichrist for disrupting BitTorrent users on its network and preventing the Associated Press from downloading the Bible. Since then, Comcast has offered nothing but excuses. Now, Comcast might get sued.

First the Bible, now ... Lotus Notes? It seems the same technology that Comcast uses to slow down BitTorrent file sharing also prevents emails with large attachments from being sent through Lotus Notes. We pray that this gets fixed soon or we'll be forced to switch to an ISP that isn't quite so evil. And email software that doesn't completely suck. [Ars Technica]

Amy Banse, an executive at bible-blocking cable company Comcast, admitted at the Web 2.0 Summit on Friday that the company intentionally disrupts BitTorrent traffic. She said the company does so because the "0.01 percent" of customers who engage in what Comcast calls "excessive use" are sending the equivalent of 18,000 emails an hour. Comcast got into this mess after the Associated Press tried and failed to transfer a copy of the Bible using BitTorrent software. The cause? A network analysis revealed deliberate service disruptions by Comcast. The Bible's author has yet respond to requests for comment. (Photo by dmuth)

Oh, god. For a few months, there have been rumblings of Comcast, the cable and Internet provider, intentionally disrupting BitTorrent traffic. The Associated Press verified the dusruption by trying to download a copy of the King James Bible via BitTorrent over Comcast-connected computers. A devilishly clever move, downloading a public-domain work unprotected by copyright, and suggesting that Comcast opposes the distribution of the Holy Book.

Comcast is finally starting to introduce digital video recorders with TiVo software, two years after announcing plans to do so. Existing boxes will be upgraded to make TiVo available, first in New England — all the better to record those Red Sox playoff games — and soon around the country. Comcast will charge subscribers a small extra fee for Tivo service. TiVo didn't respond to requests for comment, but we suspect its share of the payments are incredibly small compared to the hefty monthly fee TiVo charges its own subscribers. Any new cash, however, would be a boon for TiVo. Satellite and cable companies — including Comcast — have eaten into TiVo's market share by renting cheap DVRs to their customers. A relevant portion of a recent TiVo SEC filing is after the jump.

Comcast speaks truth to power. [The Daily Barf]

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.

If you find yourself wondering why that E!, Style Network, or G4 employee you really need to get in touch with this Friday afternoon isn't picking up his extension, don't panic: he's likely tied up with some very important keg-standing business on the Beer Floor of the First Annual Comcast Entertainment Group Crawl that will be raging at the CEG headquarters on Wilshire, a nice little tension-breaker that should help the company's employees blot out any unpleasant memories of the recent bomb scare at their headquarters with some free booze. Though it was supposed to be a surprise, staffers are already buzzing about the 10-foot ice luge CEO Ted Harbert will be personally operating in the lobby to kick off the event, sending shots of perfectly chilled Grey Goose rushing towards the gaping mouths of grateful underlings who are ready to take their Happy Hour revelry up a notch.

Formerly secretive social network Facebook is, like everyone else, going the video route. You can almost hear the saturation point filling up and bursting. "Analysts say there is high demand for online video inventory from advertisers," which must be a different crop of analysts who said IAC's Barry Diller was "late to the party" for doing exactly the same thing. Facebook will be partnering with Comcast's Ziddio. What the felk is a "Ziddio," you ask?

• David Carr: Times, Washington Post loyalty programs "cheesy." [WWD]
  

Thanks, Comcast, for pushing the cause of Net Neutrality! The Internet provider just made headlines by blocking e-mail from an old-school web community. It's just the latest effort by Comcast to be so awful at delivering an uninhibited Internet that lawmakers will have to pass a Net Neutrality law just to shut consumers up. Among Comcast's exploits:

Hide the porn and stop searching for "Bush is a loser" — the US government today asked Internet companies to keep records of e-mails and web searches. Not demanded — they'd need Congress's approval for that — but asked. Like, as a favor, in between the Chinese censorship and the Nazi collaboration. The Attorney General and FBI director made this request to AOL, Microsoft, Comcast, and Google (and Verizon, a known informant). Who will sell us out first? Let's guess!

Apparently there is a new boom (not a bubble! not a bubble!) in the Valley. I WAS NOT PREVIOUSLY AWARE. Fortune hands down its mighty investment wisdom for the Web 2.0 boom: