Two anti-Comcast camps have competing philosophies about how to best “send a message” to the cable giant about its peer-to-peer slowdowns.
While one embittered Comcast broadband subscriber, Robb Topolski, has launched a campaign to boycott the MSO’s settlement on the class-action lawsuit on the peer-to-peer issue (see Comcast Critic Calls For Boycott Of P2P Settlement), the lead attorney who negotiated the deal argues customers should “punish Comcast” by taking their $16.
“Some people are put off by the fact that each individual person only gets $16,” Lexington Law Group partner Eric Somers acknowledged in an e-mail. But, he added, “the reality is this: the more people sign up, the more Comcast has to pay — up to $16 million dollars. The fewer people sign up, the less Comcast has to pay.”
In addition, Somers contended, the appeals court ruling that the FCC had overstepped its authority in ordering Comcast to stop delaying P2P connections means that “Comcast has a better chance of winning at trial and getting off scot-free. The result is this: if people want to make Comcast pay, the way to do so is to sign up for this settlement and get a share of the $16 million.”
Note that up to $3 million of the $16 million settlement will be set aside for attorneys’ fees and other costs (see Comcast Settles Class-Action Suit Over Peer-To-Peer Delays).
