The law firm behind Comcast's class action settlement for blocking P2P uploads has dropped us a line to note that the judge in the case (Hart v. Comcast) has given final approval of the settlement and the case has come to a close. Comcast users whose traffic was throttled using Comcast's now defunct packet forgery process have until August 29 to file a claim at this website. As is usually the case, the lawyers will get most of the dough, and users will get up to $16. The firm's press release clarifies that making a claim is not an admission of piracy.

"The settlement is a great result for Comcast's customers," said Mark Todzo, an attorney with Lexington Law Group. "But customers will only get their share of the $16 million if they file a claim." Todzo claims there has been some "misinformation" spread suggesting that filing a claim is an acknowledgment of piracy.

"Millions of people use P2P protocols for legitimate, legal purposes, and when you file a claim in this case, all you're saying is that you used these protocols and believe your service may have been slowed down," he insists.

"This outcome may be less than ideal," Allyson Kapin of the RAD Campaign tells Broadband Reports. "A lot of people were hoping that in addition to the class-action suit the FCC would impose a large fine on Comcast, and there was a great deal of disappointment in April when the appeals court ruled that the Commission didn't have the authority to do so. Nevertheless, the more people file claims in this case, the more Comcast has to pay."

Despite that robust notice program, and a vigorous opt out campaign by Robert Topolski, the named plaintiff in one ofthe coordinated actions, only 6 individuals filed objections to the settlement (one of which was later withdrawn), only 143 individuals submitted timely requests for exclusion, and no state or federal officials intervened. -Judge Legrome Davis

Robb Topolski, who discovered Comcast's practices right here in the Broadband Reports forums back in 2007, remains unimpressed. Topolski's been pushing hard to have users opt out of the settlement, noting even the maximum penalty of $16 million for 30 months' worth of throttling amounts to about 0.0007 (0.07%) of 30 months of Internet revenue. That's not much of a penalty for Comcast, who has seen no fine for lying to customers about the practice.

Still, the Judge in the case notes in the final settlement approval (pdf) that Topolski was one of very few people to object, and virtually no Comcast users responded to his campaign against the settlement.

"Despite that robust notice program, and a vigorous opt out campaign by Robert Topolski," notes the Judge, "only 6 individuals filed objections to the settlement (one of which was later withdrawn), only 143 individuals submitted timely requests for exclusion...and no state or federal officials intervened."

This ends the long saga of Comcast's throttling, which started here at Broadband Reports and ends with users getting sixteen bucks. Maybe. Still, the entire affair did result in Comcast implementing more intelligent network management processes that only throttle congested users on congested nodes -- and a crystal clear 250 GB per month consumption limit for residential accounts. Whatever you think of their new solution(s), at least they're now being clear with consumers.