Cable and internet service provider Comcast, half of the local broadband duopoly here in the Bay Area, has promised to stop throttling traffic generated by users of the BitTorrent protocol. This comes in the wake of a mountain of bad press sparked by the discovery that Comcast was interfering with customers' file-sharing transmissions — including an AP reporter's entirely legal Bible download. In return, BitTorrent Inc. promises to optimize the company's client for Comcast's network. However, Comcast isn't showering away the stink; it's just applying deodorant.

Antigua has fired a salvo against the United States in a long-simmering dispute over trade regulations, promising to give free reign to intellectual property piracy if the US doesn't allow Americans to access Antigua's lucrative online gambling businesses. The World Trade Organization awarded the tiny island nation the right to ignore American copyright laws last December if negotations fail. Antigua's hope is that the Motion Picture Association of America and software companies like Microsoft will pressure the US government to come to terms — after all, The Pirate Bay has been looking for an island paradise. Why doesn't Antigua threaten to publish details of the local tax shelters used by studio and tech executives and their financiers? That seems easier. (Photo by AP/Johnny Jno-Baptiste)

While Comcast has been trying to curtail file sharing, Verizon has taken a hands-off approach. Why? It's not because Verizon executives are free-the-Internet libertarian nutjobs. No, it's because file sharing can make them more money. The phone company partnered with peer-to-peer software startup Pando Networks to speed video downloads. When DSL customers share files with others on Verizon's network, it cuts costs 75 to 90 percent and dramatically reduces the load on Verizon's network. Before you hold up this capitalist move as an argument for network neutrality, consider this: Verizon had to share data about its network with Pando to optimize delivery of the video files. (Photo by /Mark Lennihan)

Harvard University had data on 10,000 graduate-school applicants stolen from a hacked server and posted on BitTorrent. 6,600 students had their birthdates, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and more released. Don't worry, though. The university is paying for identity theft protection for all affected students. "Protecting personal information is something Harvard takes seriously, and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience and concern this incident may cause." Not serious enough to keep from getting hacked, though. Whatever. The University of Chicago would never let this crap happen. Even better? The file was posted on The Pirate Bay in February. What took you so long to make a statement, guv'nors?

Federal Communications Commission chair Kevin Martin reiterated the FCC's position on Comcast's file-sharing misdeeds. Giving a speech at Stanford Law School, Martin said the commission is "ready, willing and able" to take action against the company. But this is the exact same wording he used at the first net neutrality hearing at Harvard several weeks ago. The FCC remains "ready" — but it isn't doing anything. Mr. Martin, sir, as my grandmother would say: "Shit or get off the pot."

Freakishly boyish FCC chairman Kevin Martin isn't exactly denying our earlier report that his commission was considering a "do-over" hearing on net neutrality. The first hearing, held at Harvard, dealt with regulations on what Internet service providers can do to privilege some kinds of Net traffic over others. It was marred by a seat-packing scandal: Comcast paid people to hold spots in line for Comcast employees who never showed up. A FCC representative gave News.com this unhelpful quote on the subject of a new hearing, which we've heard could be held at Stanford:

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has made the first section of a four-part album available as a BitTorrent download. The rest of the 36-track album is available on the band's website or on Amazon.com, without copying restrictions, for $5. Reznor has been a constant critic of record labels and the music industry for years. Last year he admitted that he frequently pirated music himself. He included this statement in the upload notes for the album, Ghosts I:

The FCC is considering holding a fresh hearing on net neutrality, with Comcast and Verizon again in attendance — and this time it may be at Stanford. The do-over comes after a mini-scandal erupted over the first hearing, held at Harvard; Comcast flacks confessed they'd paid people off the street to act as seatwarmers. Let this be a lesson to you all: If you're going to meddle in politics, do it skillfully enough not to get caught.

At a Congressional hearing, Comcast executives said the company needs to filter some traffic to keep the flow of data constant on its networks — like blocking BitTorrent file-sharing, as it was caught doing last fall. Federal Communications Commission head Kevin Martin is having none of it. "I think it's important to understand that the commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary to correct any (unreasonable) practices that are ongoing today," he said today. Martin wants Internet service providers to be more "transparent." Network operators have the right to manage data traffic, but that "does not mean they can arbitrarily block access to particular applications or services," he added. Translation? If you're going to block file sharing, stop lying about it.

Here's a question from a PR agency that we just can't figure out: "Was New York socialite Tinsley Mortimer doing a little "file sharing" over the weekend?" WHAT? This is the lead to an email blast promoting some file sharing website in a very roundabout way. But we have to admit we're stumped by that opener. Why the scare quotes around "file sharing?" What are they really trying to say about Tinsley Mortimer? This is supposed to be making her look good, you crazy PR people! The more we think about it, the more dirty theories we come up with, which we will tastefully not print here. Some of you are pretty media savvy, though; what the hell does this mean? Full retarded yet cryptic email after the jump.

Links to Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay's homepage have disappeared from Yahoo's search results. Pirate Bay cofounder Brokep had some harsh words for Yahoo:

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry — that's the RIAA for the rest of the world — says illegal music downloads outnumbered legal ones 20 to 1 in 2007. The music-industry association also expects CD sales, which dropped 11 percent between 2005 and 2006, to drop further in 2007. To the industry, this means we should all support measures like the one recently proposed by French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Tru2way, the newly rechristened OpenCable standard that allows cable providers to do all sorts of crazy things with your TV set, was announced during CES. But now that the nerd sweat has dried, branding agency Siegal & Gale decided it was prime time to proclaim its genius to the world — how it managed to convey "true, two-way interactivity" in an "imprimatur" by coming up with "Tru2way" as a name. Of course, it didn't take into consideration the whole other side of the big, bad cable mess. Namely, nothing about cable is two-way. Let's see, AT&T is attempting to filter every piece of Internet traffic for illegal content. Comcast has been caught throttling file-sharing apps on its network. Now Time Warner wants you to pay extra for the bandwidth it promised you in the first place. Cable's direction has been every which way but true.

The recording and motion-picture industries have hounded broadband providers to police their pipes for file-sharing pirates. These advocacy groups want service providers to monitor and stop the illegal trafficking of files. AT&T has a filtering plan that Slate calls "baffling"; it would scan all emails and downloads for illicit content. But Time Warner Cable has found a much simpler way to deter film and music pirates — make them pay for bandwidth.

A constant thorn in copyright-holders's sides, The Pirate Bay is finally taking on water. Swedish authorities, aided by evidence gathered during a 2006 raid, are preparing legal battle against captains Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm for "conspiracy to breach copyrights." Although Pirate Bay doesn't actively host files, it indexes shared BitTorrent files, which in Hollywood's eyes makes it equally culpable. The founders are confident they'll win. The prosecutor, Hakan Roswell, is confident that even if they lose, it "wouldn't stop the service." Of course. If Sweden cracks down, the pirates will just seek less-hostile waters.

Hollywood, abetted by Internet pundits, has drawn the wrong lesson from the rise of YouTube: that the only way to make cash on the Internet is to offer bite-sized chunks of content. Hence Quarterlife, the microshow about 20-nothing artists. The only reason anyone cares about it is NBC picked it up for broadcast distribution, impressed by Quarterlife's 700,000-viewer debut, and will splice together 8-minute Web segments into six hour-long episodes that will air on broadcast TV this February. The only problem is that Quarterlife episodes, shown on YouTube and MySpace, are now averaging a mere 100,000 viewers.

A lump of coal for Hollywood executives who went slow on building legal online music and video stores over the past decade: The number of people helping themselves to content at file-sharing tracker Pirate Bay has doubled to 8 million over the past year. The site now indexes nearly twice as many BitTorrent files.

Curtis Jackson, more commonly known as the rapper 50 Cent or "Fiddy," has sided with the likes of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails in the ongoing search for a proper model for the recording industry. During an interview in Oslo, Fiddy said that "[file sharing] doesn't really hurt the artists." It hurts the studios. As an artist and G-Unit record label owner, Fiddy's in a unique position to understand that concerts and merchandise sales are where the real money is at. The industry has to learn to maximize its income from them. But what does Jackson care? He made $100 million when Coca-Cola bought Glacéau, the maker of Vitaminwater.

Swedish file sharing site Pirate Bay has added widgets from music recommendation site Last.fm to its system to give extra information about music shared on the site. Last.fm told The Register that while it does not endorse the Pirate Bay, it won't forbid them from using Last.fm widgets either. That wouldn't be "in the spirit" of its API — the specifications by which Last.fm allows other websites to incorporate its tools into their pages.

Reuters is reporting that EMI, one of the world's four big music-label groups, wants to cut its funding to industry lobby groups, including the RIAA and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. EMI's "looking at ways to 'substantially' reduce the amount it pays trade groups," as a source puts it to the wire service. This is exactly the kick in the seat of its pants that the music industry needs.