Hi,

I am sure that you are very busy so I’ll be as succinct as possible.

About 2 weeks ago, I began downloading bittorrent files (peer-to-peer), files for which Comcast was in the news for blocking in October of 2007. I was able to download them without a problem. The files I downloaded were for a computer operating system called Ubuntu, a form of Linux. After downloading the Linux operating system and resetting my firewalls, two Comcast trucks appeared at the phone pole directly in front of my house, and performed unspecified work.

I began using the Linux operating system full-time on Monday, April 14th, 2008. I had tested it twice, up to two weeks before that for a few minutes and had no problem accessing the web. I ran that system from Monday to Thursday of last week without incident by downloading: system updates, system upgrades, downloading programs, MSNBC videocasts, email from both yahoo and gmail, and general web surfing for technical information. Come the morning of Friday the 18th, I got a message on the same webbrowswer that I used all week, Firefox, stating "Your operating system is not supported by Comcast's installation wizard. Please call 1-800-COMCAST to set up your account." What’s even more ironic is that their error message rendered perfectly on the browser. Of course I called their customer abuse line and of course, I couldn’t even get a supervisor.

Comcast is violating another form of net neutrality - which operating system they allow access to. It’s not as if the system could not technically access the web in the first place, I ACCESSED IT FOR FOUR FULL DAYS BEFORE THEY WILLFULLY BLOCKED IT. I have a PC that can forensically prove this. This willful, after the fact, blocking is adversely affecting a business which I plan to launch; it’s crucial that I have web access via Linux. This access block also affects, presumably, tens or hundreds of thousands of users (if not more since this operating system is at least as popular as the Apple operating system) which use Linux as an operating system. In other words, an entire class of people are discriminated against. Moreover, their after the fact action forces consumers to pay for expensive operating systems from only two vendors (Microsoft or Apple) when free systems are available. In summary, I think Comcast’s actions can be prosecuted on a class action basis, especially in light of there being no real technical reason for achieving access.

I can only presume that there is something more systemic and nefarious at work here such as, Comcast working with the government to eavesdrop on two possibly back-door compromised systems.

Your help would be greatly appreciated. Please advise me of any further actions I might be able to take against them. I would enthusiastically work with any prosecutions against them.

Thank you.

Sincerely,


Rene Galera