FTC Staff Affirms That Abacast P2P Technology Protects Against Inadvertent File Sharing
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission staff notes that Abacast, the first company to receive this distinction, offers a peer-to-peer delivery solution that is compliant with applicable industry voluntary best practice guidelines to safeguard consumers from inadvertent file sharing.
Camas, WA – January 6, 2010– Abacast, Inc., a provider of hybrid Content Delivery Network solutions for online radio and video, has announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff has completed its review of Abacast’s flagship live and on-demand peer-to-peer (P2P) delivery solution and found it to be compliant with applicable industry best practices in defending users from inadvertently sharing of sensitive files over P2P networks.
Inadvertent file sharing can result in consumers unwittingly sharing sensitive documents such as tax returns to other members of P2P networks. To address this concern, the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA, http://www.dcia.info), a non-profit trade organization focused on commercial development of P2P and related technologies, sponsors the Inadvertent Sharing Protection Working Group (ISPG). The ISPG created a set of Voluntary Best Practices (VBPs) for P2P companies to implement in order to minimize or eliminate inadvertent sharing of files. In its review of P2P delivery solutions, FTC staff concluded that Abacast’s solution protects against the inadvertent sharing of any file among peers. Importantly, several of the VBPs are not relevant to Abacast in light of its function as a closed content distribution network.
Jim Kott, Abacast Co-President, said “Consumers who access services that rely on Abacast’s peer-to-peer delivery can be confident that the technology will enhance their listening or viewing experience and not in any way expose private files to others.”
Abacast is the only company to-date to receive this recognition and approval of the ISPG’s Voluntary Best Practices that specify desired file-sharing behavior. In the FTC staff report, Mary Engle, Associate Director of the FTC Division of Advertising Practices noted that, “…only files that have been provided to Abacast’s servers from Abacast’s customers are distributed.” The report when on to conclude that “Our staff’s tests show that [Abacast’s] program is compliant with the industry Voluntary Best Practices…”
Marty Lafferty, CEO of the DCIA, said that, “Abacast has provided an exemplary industry leadership role with its full implementation of the ISPG Voluntary Best Practices that apply to Abacast. We applaud the FTC’s recognition of Abacast’s P2P delivery technology for helping to safeguard private information.”
