An Imminent Victory for ‘Net Neutrality’ Advocates

/*title: “网络中立”拥护者即将胜出*/
Translator: Frank
Checker: Frank

When Comcast admitted last fall that it was blocking — or slowing down, as the company preferred to call it — certain file transfers by customers, a lot of people complained that the company was unfairly discriminating against heavy Internet users.

当Comcast在上个秋季承认他们阻塞或减慢了—正如公司喜欢的说法—某些被用户传输的文件，许多人抱怨网络公司不公地区别对待大量英特网用户。

Now it seems that the Federal Communications Commission is poised to agree.

现在，团体交流委员会似乎一制同意上述说法。

The Associated Press reported late Thursday that the F.C.C.’s chairman, Kevin J. Martin, has concluded that Comcast improperly blocked some file transfers. Mr. Martin told the A.P. he would recommend that the commission punish Comcast, and order it to stop the blocking, tell the commission how and how often it blocked file transfers and disclose to consumers its future plans for managing its network.

美联社在上星期四报导F.C.C主席Kevin J. Martin已确认Comcast公司不恰当地阻塞了一些文件的传输。Martin先生告诉美联社他将建议委员会惩罚Comcast并命令他们停止网络阻塞；同时告诉委员会他们是如何和几次阻塞文件传输；向用户公开公司未来运营网络系统的计划。

Such an action would be the first time that regulators have slapped an Internet provider for violating F.C.C. open-access rules. Those rules are designed to prevent providers from favoring some services over others — for example, by accelerating the transfer of video from their own movie service or slowing down transfers from competitors.

这样像管理者因网络供应者违反F.C.C的开放路径条例而对其加以惩罚的作法将是首次。这些条例是为防止供应商支持某些服务器而拒绝其他服务器来设立的，例如，条例防止供应商加快自己的影视服务器传输文件速度或者减慢竞争者的传输速度。

That will surely please “net neutrality” advocates like Free Press, which brought the original complaint. The group issued a statement Thursday night saying: “The F.C.C. now appears ready to take action on behalf of consumers. This is an historic test for whether the law will protect the open Internet. If the commission decisively rules against Comcast, it will be a remarkable victory for organized people over organized money.”

F.C.C的作法当然会取悦像“免费高速”这样的“网络中立”拥护者，是“免费高速”最早提出不满。这群拥护者在星期四发表评论：“有迹象表明F.C.C现在准备在用户利益方面采取措施。这是对律法是否会保护开放网络的历史性考验。如果委员会坚决地裁决Comcast有违条例，那么，那将是群众组织对利益团体一次非凡的胜利。

Comcast’s blocking efforts ignited a wildfire of criticism last fall, after the A.P. tested Comcast’s network and reported that the cable company was manipulating Internet protocols to intermittently block file transfers made by customers using a popular program called BitTorrent.

当美联社检测了Comcast的网络系统并报导电缆公司在操纵网络议案来间断地阻塞用户用一个叫BitTorrent的程序编写的文件的传输之后，Comcast的阻塞传输错误在上个秋天点燃了一场野火。

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, admitted that it was slowing down certain traffic but claimed it was legitimately managing its network so that a few bandwidth hogs didn’t bog things down for everyone else.

Comcast—美国最大的电缆供应商—承认只有减慢了某些网路的传输速度并声称管理他们的网络系统是合法的才能让一些“网宽掘取者”不能截获其他人的信息。

Still, in response to critics, the company decided to work with BitTorrent and experiment with other traffic-management techniques to handle the loads on its network.

虽然如此，公司为了对批评作出回复还是决定跟BitTorrent合作，同时实验其他的网路经营者的技术来处理自身的网络系统重担。

The dirty little secret of the Internet industry is that all the providers use software tools to manage their network traffic. Comcast got caught and may have been more aggressive than some rivals, but it’s certainly not alone.

所有的供应商都使用软件工具来管理他们的网络系统通讯是网络产业隐晦的小秘密。虽然Comcast被抓住了并可能曾经比他的对手们更放肆，但是这种情况诚然不是个别现象。

Mr. Martin’s proposed ruling in favor of openness could actually end up hurting Internet users if it accelerates the nascent moves by the industry to charge customers based on how much data they use instead of offering essentially unlimited data for a flat fee.

如果F.C.C的措施加快了产业基于资料的多少而不是提供本质上无限制资料但价格起落不定的初级传递效率，Martin先生在支持开放的立场下提议惩罚Comcast事实上才能结束伤害英特网用户。