Comcast and C-Span

[Bluesplayer]

With the merger of Comcast and Time-Warner cable, Comcast recently became my cable provider. TW carried all 3 C-Span channels. Comcast has dropped C-Span 3, which is currently carrying Kyle sampson's committee testimony.

Neither Comcast nor the city guy responsible for their franchise here have been very helpful in getting the channel back. Any suggestions?

[Mika]

1. Stream it

www.cspan.org

[Bluesplayer]

4. thanks

I'm doing that, but sometimes the TV is easier for me.

[hashibabba]

2. My Comcast in Virginia carries C-SPAN3 on its digital

cable channels. I hope they don't drop it here.

[onenote]

9. I don't think its likely it'll be dropped if its on digital

That seems to be Comcast's plan -- move CSPAN 3 to digital on its systems generally.

[wicket]

14. I have comcast digital and don't have c-span3

I had it for a while but then they took it away.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Did you know about the Comcast censuring of emails

They had a piece sometime ago on one of the sites about this...Comcast carried the email account of a democratic activist. He sent out bulk emails. Some of the emails he sent out were not getting to his customers. He checked into what was happening. Comcast said they did not like the content of the letters they gave some excuse etc. The guy said he was going to sue they had no right to censure the emails. They were not porno or threatening to anyone. The courts then said Comcast had to send the emails and to stop censuring a persons account.

Can you believe that. Comcast is like that glad we don't have them. But since the own the airwaves in TV and internet it probably won't be long before they reach into our area.

[RoyGBiv]

10. Citation?

This kind of thing happens regularly (bulk e-mails not getting to recipients), usually resulting in the person/people involved claiming censorship. In every case I have investigated (a lot of them) the problem was caused either by an overly-aggressive SPAM filter or the composer of the e-mails constructed them in such a way that they'd be caught and blocked even by non-aggressive filters. One of the simplest SPAM filters is a block on e-mails that have more than X number of recipients in the CC: header.

The problem is generally fixed within hours, days at most, after a polite call to the provider letting them know this is occurring. This assumes the customer is willing to construct his or her mass e-mails in a way that does not require a complete restructuring of the filters in place.

I'm rather doubtful of the notion that a judge ordered anything like that. I've never read Comcast's service agreements, but I am intimately familiar with a typical ISP's service agreement. E-mail delivery is not guaranteed and can in fact be stopped entirely if the company deems the individual sending/receiving e-mails are violating some other portion of the service agreement. Using it to send what the ISP defines as SPAM would be a violation.

In any case, I'd be interested in seeing the court documents or at least a citation to the case if this is true. It's rather unusual. Fighting SPAM is both a demand of customers and a reason a lot of e-mails don't end up where they are supposed to go. When your system's servers handles several million SPAM messages a day, it's easy not to notice one individual getting blocked unintentionally.

[Garbo 2004]

11. No court case, no court orders. Symantec Brightmail spam blocker blocked the

mail and Symantec lifted the block after receiving complaints. I don't recall Comcast ever saying it was blocking political content; in fact, they said they weren't. And again, this was not a court matter as you say.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/isp-censored-antiwar-email/2005/07/26/1122143836194.html

[ChiciB1]

15. Only High Speed In My Area... So I'm STUCK!!!

Red County.... Sarasota, FL!!!

[SemperEadem]

18. Cable doesn't use airwaves

they use telephone/fibre opt lines.

You need a transmission tower for airwaves.

[LSK]

5. stream it or watch the repeat tonite on 1 or 2

[Bluesplayer]

6. I appreciate

the suggestions for what I can do for myself, but the unanswered question is why Comcast would drop it to begin with.

[MadJohnShaft]

7. I fill in Comcast's online form once a month asking them to carry CSPAN3

sometimes I call them un-American ;)

[onenote]

8. Comcast and TW did not merge

Comcast bought some of Time Warner's cable systems and Time Warner bought some of Comcast's systems. There is no common ownership between the two companies.

That said, I think Comcast's decision to cut back its carriage of CSPAN3 is outrageous.

[Garbo 2004]

12. Comcast just added CSPAN 3 in my area. Did they give you any reasons for dropping it

in your area?

[ChiciB1]

13. Gotcha... I Have Comcast TOO! I Just Commented About The At

another post... some coincidence here!!!

Have to call them back out to do a Re-Re-Re-FIX or something. I pay them "big bucks" for High Speed that's really so SLOW!!!!

I have a DISH and have been thinking about calling them back about getting C-Span3, called them before but "no luck!"

I know I can see it later this week-end on 1 or 2, but I would like to see it NOW!

[A wise Man]

16. I'd they dropped CSPAN2

on my Atlanta comcast. They didn't, they just changed the channel number. Search to see if the same has happened to you. Just a thought

[SemperEadem]

17. C-SPAN will be reairing the hearings later on tonight on C -SPAN1