Prev: NEWS: Sony Ericsson, AT&T announce the X10, available Aug. 15 for $149.99
Next: Advice on wireless adapter needed
From: John Navas on 9 Aug 2010 20:29
Google and Verizon walked into a barrage of opposition from public
interest groups in Washington on Monday as they formally announced a
joint proposal for how traffic on the internet should be regulated.

The biggest US internet and telecommunications groups said their plan,
the first reports of which emerged last week, would ensure all services
on the internet were treated equally � �net neutrality� � and the web
would remain a fully open medium.

But they said network operators should be able to charge more for a
category of services that travel over a higher-quality connection
separate from the public internet. They also proposed that wireless
companies should be free to block individual internet services, provided
they disclosed their actions.

Services likely to travel over the communications �fast lanes� included
high-bandwidth content such as healthcare and education and
entertainment such as 3D video, said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chief
executive.

The greater freedoms proposed by Google and Verizon drew condemnation
from public interest groups that have supported the Obama
administration�s push for net neutrality.

Free Press claimed the plan would �divide the information superhighway,
creating new private fast lanes for the big players while leaving the
little guy stranded on a winding dirt road.� The Center for Democracy
and Technology said that while it supported the rules that would prevent
discrimination, the extra freedoms the groups were proposing would
undermine the plan�s value.

Early reports of the joint proposal had already prompted strong attacks
on Google, with critics claiming it was backing away from its commitment
to net neutrality in favour of an approach that would mainly favour
rich, established groups.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive, defended his company�s position. Google
continued to believe in an open internet supporting future generations
of internet upstarts, he said. He said Google would not pay to be
carried on the new �fast lanes� it was proposing, but would use the
existing public internet for all its services, including YouTube.
Existing financial relationships between internet and communications
groups created enough incentives for network operators to keep investing
in the internet, he said.

The Federal Communications Commission last week called off talks aimed
at agreeing rules for net neutrality, and has proposed extending its
regulatory remit to enforce a set of internet rules.

<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8a51ac88-a405-11df-a872-00144feabdc0.html>
From: John Navas on 9 Aug 2010 20:32
KEEP THE INTERNET OPEN, ACCESSIBLE, CREATIVE

The White House, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission need
to push back against efforts by Verizon and Google and other Internet
service providers to discriminate against online content by rates and
fees

THE debate over preserving open, equal access to the Internet took a
hard, sharp turn away from the theoretical toward a grim future of toll
booths on the information superhighway.

The Associated Press confirmed Monday that Verizon and Google want to
allow Internet service providers to charge customers extra for premium
services over segregated networks. None of this, they claim, should come
at the expense of slowing, blocking or charging to prioritize regular
Internet traffic � however that gets defined. Brace for heavy eye rolls.

Columbia law professor Tim Wu, writing for Slate, likens the
"content-for-cash scheme" to an earlier scandal in another medium: "We
could term it 'Internet Payola' after the practice of record labels
paying radio stations to play their songs."

The agreement between Verizon and Google to pursue their line of
argument in Congress and with regulators should be an alarm bell for
consumers, lawmakers and the White House. This is a direct assault on
their pocketbooks, and a productive way of doing business.

Wake up Mr. President, reintroduce yourself to your campaign personas,
which was shocked and appalled by the potential tampering with a
technology that thrived, prospered and evolved thanks to open access for
new ideas, devices and software.

The next few days and weeks will introduce a brave, new world of murky
language about "managed services" and other contrivances by ISP
lobbyists to sell their plan not to treat all customers equally.

The moment is ripe for the Federal Communications Commission and chair
Julius Genachowski to reclaim the moral and legal authority to protect
American consumers. A judicial setback in the FCC's ability to regulate
broadband only means the agency's authority needs to be broadened and
affirmed by Congress.

The FCC has powerful allies, such as Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who
chairs the Senate Commerce Committee. He knows firsthand how corporate
selectivity in service provision can hurt rural markets.

Wu, chair of the media-reform group Free Press, wonders if an
inadvertent casualty of the pay-to-play path will be Google's
credibility with customers who trusted the company as a corporate
expression of an open-Internet ethic.

Net neutrality is under assault and the consequences are real. The White
House, Congress and the FCC must take on a potent, well-financed,
politically adroit lobbying force to protect millions of ordinary
customers and voters.

<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2012580175_edit10deal.html>
From: John Navas on 9 Aug 2010 20:36
GOOGLE-VERIZON PACT: IT GETS WORSE

What Google and Verizon are proposing is fake Net Neutrality. You can
read their framework for yourself here or go here to see Google twisting
itself in knots about this suddenly "thorny issue." But here are the
basics of what the two companies are proposing:

1. Under their proposal, there would be no Net Neutrality on wireless
networks -- meaning anything goes, from blocking websites and
applications to pay-for-priority treatment.

2. Their proposed standard for "non-discrimination" on wired networks is
so weak that actions like Comcast's widely denounced blocking of
BitTorrent would be allowed.

3. The deal would let ISPs like Verizon -- instead of Internet users
like you -- decide which applications deserve the best quality of
service. That's not the way the Internet has ever worked, and it
threatens to close the door on tomorrow's innovative applications. (If
RealPlayer had been favored a few years ago, would we ever have gotten
YouTube?)

4. The deal would allow ISPs to effectively split the Internet into "two
pipes" -- one of which would be reserved for "managed services," a
pay-for-pay platform for content and applications. This is the
proverbial toll road on the information superhighway, a fast lane
reserved for the select few, while the rest of us are stuck on the
cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.

5. The pact proposes to turn the Federal Communications Commission into
a toothless watchdog, left fruitlessly chasing consumer complaints but
unable to make rules of its own. Instead, it would leave it up to
unaccountable (and almost surely industry-controlled) third parties to
decide what the rules should be.

MORE:
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/google-verizon-pact-it-ge_b_676194.html>
From: Bhairitu on 9 Aug 2010 22:42
John Navas wrote:
> GOOGLE-VERIZON PACT: IT GETS WORSE
>
> What Google and Verizon are proposing is fake Net Neutrality. You can
> read their framework for yourself here or go here to see Google twisting
> itself in knots about this suddenly "thorny issue." But here are the
> basics of what the two companies are proposing:
>
> 1. Under their proposal, there would be no Net Neutrality on wireless
> networks -- meaning anything goes, from blocking websites and
> applications to pay-for-priority treatment.
>
> 2. Their proposed standard for "non-discrimination" on wired networks is
> so weak that actions like Comcast's widely denounced blocking of
> BitTorrent would be allowed.
>
> 3. The deal would let ISPs like Verizon -- instead of Internet users
> like you -- decide which applications deserve the best quality of
> service. That's not the way the Internet has ever worked, and it
> threatens to close the door on tomorrow's innovative applications. (If
> RealPlayer had been favored a few years ago, would we ever have gotten
> YouTube?)
>
> 4. The deal would allow ISPs to effectively split the Internet into "two
> pipes" -- one of which would be reserved for "managed services," a
> pay-for-pay platform for content and applications. This is the
> proverbial toll road on the information superhighway, a fast lane
> reserved for the select few, while the rest of us are stuck on the
> cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.
>
> 5. The pact proposes to turn the Federal Communications Commission into
> a toothless watchdog, left fruitlessly chasing consumer complaints but
> unable to make rules of its own. Instead, it would leave it up to
> unaccountable (and almost surely industry-controlled) third parties to
> decide what the rules should be.
>
> MORE:
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/google-verizon-pact-it-ge_b_676194.html>

The Internet has become so important to daily life that it needs to be
in the "commons" like our highways and away the control of the oligarchs.
From: John Navas on 9 Aug 2010 23:56
On Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:42:15 -0700, in
<c038o.23468$RZ1.22027(a)newsfe24.iad>, Bhairitu <noozguru(a)sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

>The Internet has become so important to daily life that it needs to be
>in the "commons" like our highways and away the control of the oligarchs.

More and more countries are coming to see it that way, but don't hold
your breath here, because right-wingers will vigorously oppose anything
so clearly in the public interest. Can you say, "Obamanet"? ;)

--
John

"We have met the enemy and he is us" -Pogo
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2
Prev: NEWS: Sony Ericsson, AT&T announce the X10, available Aug. 15 for $149.99
Next: Advice on wireless adapter needed