Airlines overbook passengers. Airlines must compensate passengers when a flight is actually overfilled. They accept the risk that everyone actually shows up. Both the airline and passengers still benefit by being able to keep the costs down. The airline sells more tickets than seats that are available, and once in a while there is a problem, and the airline must compensate a bumped passenger.

Compare this to Comcast. They oversell a connection, which is perfectly legit, and they assume the risk that it will be full at some point. However, it is NOT the consumers' fault that this happens. Instead of compensating customers if the ISP's pipe is full, they just kick out the people that use it most. If Comcast is that concerned, they should put a usage cap into effect for all customers not under a contract (not sure if "you must sign up for 3 months at current price, under these terms" happens with them). Then, they should PUBLISH the caps or not complain about users USING their connection that they pay for.

Someone pointed out the difference between unlimited access and usage. If there is no monthly usage cap, and there is (I can't remember) a 1.5 mbps limit, then unlimited access implies that you can use 1.5mbps ALL THE TIME.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/7940/24657#24657