Rules Set For BitTorrent Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has slated Comcast's appeal of the Federal Communications Commission's BitTorrent decision as the third of three cases to be heard Jan. 8. According to Comcast, each side has been given 25 minutes — actually a lot of time, as these arguments go, and a possible indication that the court has a particular interest in the issue. Arguments could be extended even beyond that span, at the judges' discretion, as there is no case scheduled for after it. The FCC found back in summer 2008 that Comcast violated its Internet open-access guidelines by blocking BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic. Comcast took the FCC to court over the decision, challenging the legal underpinnings as well as the findings that Comcast was in violation, which it said "were not justified by the record."