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Net Neutrality 9-15-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Google End Runs AT&T, Verizon and the other Telecomms

Google is leasing a huge chunk of space, almost two full floors, at 111 Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea District of Manhattan in the landmark former Port Authority Headquarters. . . . But it isn’t the building that’s the key to understanding this move. According to the breaking story in the Village Voice,

The old Port Authority headquarters sits atop one of the main fiber optic arteries in New York City—the Hudson Street–Ninth Avenue “fiber highway.” The venerable behemoth is already one of the country’s most important “carrier hotels”—loosely speaking, the physical connection points of the world’s telecommunications networks and the World Wide Web. As a result, Google will “have access to as much bandwidth as possible and as much variety of bandwidth as possible,” says Dana Spiegel, a technology consultant and executive director of NYC Wireless.

The tenant list of this building reads like a Who’s Who in High Tech, with many of the top internet and Telecomm players in residence . . . There’s a “meet me” room known as NYC Connect . . . a carrier neutral facility . . . This will allow Google to bypass the Telecomms and go directly to Tier 2 service providers. The meet me facilities “are built to N+1 redundancy.

There is much speculation about why Google is doing this, but what it really comes down to is that Google is now master of its own fiber optic destiny and can’t be held hostage by Ed Whitacre or any other Telecomm. And if you add up the ongoing purchases of dark fiber all over the map, it spells out a future where the Telecomms will never be able to hold Google hostage to additional fees or slow down delivery of Google Video or VOIP.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 9-14-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

New Report Skewers Telco Spin on Competition

Why has the United States fallen behind the rest of the world in accessible and affordable broadband service?

The answer, according to a report [PDF] released by Free Press, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, is marketplace failures wrought by phone and cable companies’ near monopoly control of last-mile broadband markets.

The 44-page report, Broadband Reality Check II, exposes the truth behind America’s digital decline: A marketplace controlled by the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast has left Americans with higher prices, slower speeds and no meaningful competition for high-speed Internet service.

It exposes the lie behind phone companies’ repeated claims that the U.S. has a diverse marketplace, with myriad broadband choices for the consumer.

It decisively skewers the notion — put forth by telco executives and their high-paid shills — that “fierce competition” precludes Net Neutrality protections.

[ . . . ]

Broadband Reality Check II also finds:

The 14 other OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] nations saw higher overall net growth in broadband adoption than the United States from 2001 to 2005.

Consumers in other countries enjoy broadband connections that are far faster and cheaper than what is available here. U.S. consumers pay nearly twice as much as the Japanese for connections that are 20 times as slow.

U.S. broadband prices aren’t dropping: Cable modem prices are holding constant or rising, and DSL customers on average are getting less bandwidth per dollar than just a year ago.

The market share of “third platform” alternatives like satellite, wireless and broadband over powerline technologies has actually decreased over the past five years.

The report contradicts the rosy picture painted by the Federal Communications Commission, by exposing the agency’s failure to rein in broadband monopolies . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 9-13-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality and the DMCA

. . . Buried deep within the legalese and copyright mumbo jumbo of the DMCA is a single but little read clause that could, in theory, have a dramatic impact on the net neutrality fight, especially if net neutrality never passes.

[ . . .]

When the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998] (PDF) became law in 1998, telecoms breathed a sigh of relief. After years of uncertainty, it was revealed that they could not be held liable for any copyright infringement that passed through their network. As a “transitory communications” provider, all they had to do was meet a few simple requirements and they never had to worry about being held accountable.

However, it’s one of those requirements that may now prove to be a sticking point. The second requirement for a “transitory communications” provider reads as follows (emphasis added):

“The transmission, routing, provision of connections, or copying must be carried out by an automatic technical process without selection of material by the service provider.”

In short, the DMCA gave telecoms a pass on copyright infringement suits so long as they didn’t make any selection of the content that passed through their service. As long as telecoms are blindly routing requested content to its end destination, they could not be held accountable for that material.

However, the minute they start intelligently discriminating one type of material from another, their situation becomes in doubt. They no longer meet the qualifications of “transitory communications” provider and now have no clear status under the DMCA.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

The Mic Is On! We’re Having Parallel Lives!

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

open mike night

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about.

Tonight we’re talking having more than one life!

castle Beach Barsailboat

We might also talk about

  • Donald Trump or Annie Lennox
  • Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela
  • Steven Spielberg or Meg Ryan
  • anyone real or fictional

AND THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic Is On! It’s Summer Vacation Again!

Tues. 7pm Chicago: Open Mic — What Would You Do with a Few Parallel Lives?

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Let’s See There’s the Rich One, the Rock Star One . . .

Personal Branding logo

YES, the mic will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about.

Tonight we’re talking about having more than one life!

We might also talk about being able to be

  • Donald Trump or Annie Lennox
  • Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela
  • Steven Spielberg or Meg Ryan
  • anyone real or fictional

AND THE EVER POPULAR,

Basil the code-writing donkey.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
The Mic Is On! It’s Summer Vacation Again!

Staying Connected in Times of Weirdness

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I've been thinking . . .
Trackbacks coming into and going out of Successful-Blog have been mystically enchanted. I am unable to know where they go, when they go, or get word when they’ve been sent to me as well. A famous blogger is helping me sort out this mystery . . . film at 11 on the SETI channel.

Until then, please know that issues at Technorati — links are disappearing for no reason — and WordPress –trackbacks aren’t coming in or going out– have made it hard for me to know about your generosity. If you haven’t heard a word about a connection or gesture you’ve made, please email me — lizsun2 at gmail [dot] com so that I can drop by and properly ay, “thanks.”

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