The FCC chief said Friday that Comcast must stop singling out users of the BitTorrent file-sharing application, and reveal to customers what sort of “traffic shaping” activities it was employing.

At this year’s CSS, Martin announced a probe of Comcast’s activities in limiting bandwidth for users of P2P applications. Martin’s ruling, which needs a sign-off from the rest of the commission, does not include penalties or sanctions for Comcast’s previous data-nanny behaviors.

The order looks like a major vote for network neutrality, the often-debated concept that ISPs need to keep their noses out of how customers use the Internet.”The Internet is based upon the idea that consumers can go anywhere they want and access any content they want,” the FCC chieftain told the New York Times in an interview. “When they show they are blocking access to some sort of content, they have the burden to show that what they are doing is reasonable.”

In late March, BitTorrent and Comcast came to an uneasy peace over the issue with an agreement that the cabler would transition to “protocol agnostic” bandwidth management — meaning BitTorrent wouldn’t be singled out. BitTorrent is most widely used for the sharing of movie and TV files, while Comcast sells pay-per-view programming to its cable TV customers.

BitTorrent’s charges of anti-competitive behavior — which could have wrought legal and governmental headaches for Comcast — were enough to get the cabler’s attention.

BitTorrent has said it’s developing new distribution methods that would reduce the drag on bandwidth providers.

Eric Klinker, chief technology officer of BitTorrent, said at the time of the agreement: “Recognizing that the Web is richer and more bandwidth-intensive than it has been historically, we are pleased that Comcast … wants to collaborate with us to migrate to techniques that the Internet community will find to be more transparent.”

The FCC chief said Friday that one of the problems with Comcast’s bandwidth crackdown was the cabler’s lack of clear communication with customers.

BitTorrent users on Comcast complained that not only was bandwidth choked off for them while using the P2P application, they were systematically blocked from seeding — the first P in the P2P end of things, in which users with complete files remain online, “seeding” other downloaders.

The relative youth of FCC chief Martin, a Bush appointee, probably figures into what looks like an unusual ruling against a big operator such as Comcast. Basically, Martin gets it. Score 1 for Generation X.

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“The last thing I want slowing my internet service down are P2P freeloaders,” says free-thinker Cuban — yes, the media and sports zillionaire who financed Grokster’s defense in a P2P lawsuit — and the guy who founded Broadcast.com, a seminal provider of online multimedia and streaming services.

Jon Hart, a subscriber to Comcast’s Internet Performance Plus package, sued the cabler mid-month, seeking class-action status. His lawsuit says Comcast blocks access to P2P web sites such as BitTorrent.

Hart wants Comcast to stop using applications that he says pull the plug on P2P transactions. He also wants the cabler to stop advertising its premium hookup as a solution for downloading large files. The Associated Press broke the story on Comcast’s actions last spring, based on an Oregon user’s complaints.

“Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services,” Comcast said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications.”

That network management means bottlenecks for P2P networks, but the file transfers eventually go through, Comcast says. Numerous reports say Comcast’s technique is to send data packets to the computers involved in the transfer indicating that the other computer has signed off.

“The only person/organization that benefits from P2P usage are those that are trying to distribute content and want to distribute it on someone else’s bandwidth dime,” Cuban writes on his popular (and obviously unedited) blog.

The Dallas Mavericks owner says “Comcast, Time Warner, etc., should charge a premium to those users who want to act as a seed and relay for P2P traffic. … Make (distributors) pay commercial rates. That will stop P2P dead in its tracks.”

In a follow-up blog post, Cuban cited all the hate comments he’s been getting from P2P Nation. “One thing continues to be a certainty in the technology world, NEVER challenge a sacred cow.”

And then in a third post:

So I’ve come up with a better way to get rid of P2P without calling for an outright disabling of the protocol. Maybe ISPs should just treat upstream bandwidth the way cellphone companies treat minutes. Give users an option on how many upstream bits they want to be able to use and during what times of day.

You can track all that activity in Mr. Cuban’s brain by reading the following posts from his blog and their comments:

An Open Letter to Comcast and Every Cable/Telco

Let’s chat about P2P some more

P2P Part 3

Meanwhile, assorted protests have been filed with the FCC. Net Neutrality legislation continues to struggle in Congress.

The Ridley Scott movie, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, opens wide Nov. 2, but you can see it now, illegally and unethically via bit torrents.

The copy appears to come from an Academy Award “for your consideration” DVD screener, meaning it’s of high quality.Oscar voters are swimming in advance DVDs of unreleased movies come late fall, and they’re sworn not to copy, screen or otherwise distribute. But pretty much anyone in L.A. who’s plugged knows someone who gets the discs.

The MPAA’s piracy fighters tried to shut down the use of DVDs a few years back, but the studios and filmmakers rebelled. Who has the time to go to all those movies, the Academy’s aging voters cry — even though they always get in free. They’re voting for their pals, anyway.

Inside tip: Most of the Oscar votes of the past decade were informed by VHS (aka video horse shit) tapes.”Sicko” and “Hostel II” were among the recent victims of prerelease downloads, although in “Sicko’s” case the publicity probably outweighed the losses.

Here’s a look at Veoh’s YouTube channel, where, presumably, most of the action is:

Videos played immediately but, as expected, picture quality wasn’t too good blown up to full-screen. Other channels looked much better (such as HD podcasts) but inevitably took a lot longer to load. This is the downside of VeohTV’s open approach to aggregating many video sources into one unified player. By mixing different video formats, the viewing experience varies greatly.

The blog also checked out the live TV service Zattoo, which is available only in the EU.

Last100 is written by London-based journalist Steve O’Hear. Looks like a great place to keep up with streaming/downloading schemes. It’s part of the fledgling network attached to the popular web technology blog Read/WriteWeb.

A high-quality DVD screener (DVDSCR) copy is widely available on BitTorrent outlets. The Google download is a no-hassle, zero risk way to see the film. As of this writing, it’s located at this Google Video url. If that link goes dead, use the search or just nose around.

Moore has said “I don’t have a problem” with P2P sharing of his films, as long as the networkers aren’t making money. “I do quite well,” he explained. “I make these movies because I want things to change.” He compared it to someone lending a DVD to a friend.

In this case, though, “Sicko” has another week and half until it makes it to U.S. theaters. Moore’s backers at The Weinstein Company may not be so enthused.

Update: Lionsgate, the distributor of “Sicko,” said Tuesday it would open the film on one AMC screen in New York this Friday, a week before the wide premiere. A Weinstein exec told The New York Times that the move was not related to the premature Internet distribution of the film.

Update: “Sicko” is set for Sicko“>DVD release on Nov. 6.

They see the pain-in-the-ass factor of P2P networks such as BitTorrent as a major opportunity for sales of legal downloads. “Free is really not free,” said David Caulton, of Microsoft. “It takes a lot of time (to download) and the quality may not be great. BitTorrent is painful.”

Availability of many more titles, flexible price points and short content designed for the iPod crowd were all cited as ways to grow the legal downloads market.

Home Media Magazine has the Digital Hollywood report. (Sorry, no permalink.)