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Net Neutrality 11-28-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Wake up, Neo

Breaking the Matrix is my column in the October issue of Linux Journal. It goes beyond Net Neutrality arguments to explore the possibility of (nay, the need for) a truly open marketplace for connectivity. Some excerpts:

Far more powerful is a belief, held by nearly everybody in the developed world, that the best markets are captive ones. In the Free Software and Open Source movements we call captive markets “walled gardens” or “silos”. But to most producers in the developed world, these are ideal. And to most consumers, they are business as usual.
Even after the Net obsoleted closed on-line systems, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft continued to silo instant messaging inside their own walled gardens. In 2006, there should be no excuse for this.
Yet there is. We continue to believe, as both producers and consumers, that silos are okay. And worse, that a “free” marketplace is one where you get to choose the best silo.
We see this in the US today with our “choice” of services from phone and cable carriers. We even think the Net itself is a grace of telecom and cablecom carriage. After all, those are the guys we pay to get it. Those are the guys who have gradually increased our connection speeds.

[ . . . ]

These carriers can no more appreciate a truly free market than an agent in The Matrix can imagine a world not run by machines….
You have to be free to see how absurd silos can be. You have to see markets as wide-open spaces opened by ubiquitous relationships, and potential relationships, between digital devices and the human beings who use them. You have to see unrestricted possibilities for the people and organizations putting those devices, their applications and their data to work. Those possibilities lose their limits once you set your mind free of the notion that a free market is just a choice of silos.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 11-24-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Nokia to shut VoIP and file-sharing

. . . It’s not that Nokia has made a U-turn on VoIP. But [its planned bandwidth-shaper] tool would prioritize the traffic of preferred services, giving the control back to partners content providers, says Nokia. File-sharing could be allowed, but for specific contents or at special occasions. With such a development, mobile operators are anticipating some Net Neutrality debate for cellphones.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 11-22-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Strains Showing in Longtime Friendship
Telecom firms have supported Rep. Dingell, and until recently, the incoming House committee chairman has supported them [via Imus Show Blog]

WASHINGTON, November 21, 2006 — Rep. John Dingell greeted the Republican-drafted telecommunications bill, designed to speed the Bell companies’ entry into the television marketplace, with sarcasm and cynicism.

“We have before us, then, a piece of the purest special interest legislation, something which will benefit the few at the expense of the many,” the Michigan Democrat said on June 8, as the House debated the bill.

“This legislation is going to benefit the special interests, particularly the cable and the telephone industry,” said Dingell, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell lost that battle; the bill passed the House overwhelmingly, 321-101. Even among Democrats, 106 voted for the final bill, with 92 opposed.

But with Democrats taking control of Congress in the midterm elections, the 2006 telecommunications overhaul is almost certain to be killed. Democrats are not likely to cooperate with any Republican-led push for the measure in December’s post-election session. Despite the wide margin in the House, supporters of the telecom bill doubt they can secure enough votes in the Senate for passage this year.

And with Dingell set to reclaim in January the gavel of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which he vigorously ruled from 1981 until 1995, the shape of telecommunications legislation in 2007 could be vastly different.

The likely death of the telecom bill is a major defeat for the Bell companies — AT&T Inc., BellSouth, Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications International — and their lobbying arm, the U.S. Telecom Association, for whom passage of the bill was the key legislative priority. It would have allowed the Bell companies to string cable television wires without having to get approval by local governments.

But for the Bell companies, the most bitter irony in this turn of fate in the telecom wars is this: John Dingell was once one of their closest friends. He took their campaign contributions and, for more than two decades, promoted their legislative priorities on Capitol Hill. It’s a relationship that soured only within the past year.

On the night of the Bells’ pyrrhic victory in June, Dingell was acerbic as he walked off the House floor, just past 10 p.m. The House Rules Committee had denied the full House a vote on an amendment he authored to restore cities’ control of their rights of way. A reporter asked him why that happened.

“This was decided by a very unprincipled lobby,” Dingell said.

“But you used to be friends with the Bells,” the reporter remarked.

“I have found that I was, but they were not.”

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 11-21-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

On Net Neutrality: Congress Wakes Up to a Watchful Public

On the issue of Net Neutrality, companies like AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Comcast outspent public interest advocates on a scale of 500 to 1 – pushing Congress to remove the longstanding nondiscrimination rules that enabled the Internet to become the greatest vehicle for free speech and economic innovation.

[ . . .]

As much as anything, the election sent a message to Congress to stop currying favor with moneyed interests and return to governing in the public interest.

Near the top of this new agenda will be restoring Net Neutrality. Many in Congress came to this realization after receiving more than a million letters from concerned citizens urging them to maintain a free and open Internet.

Whereas before, the phone companies had been confident that Congress would simply sign-off on industry-written legislation. Now — as the 109th Congress comes to a close — no member can vote with the telecom cartel without feeling the full heat of public scrutiny.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 11-20-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

New Congress Likely To Support Net Neutrality

Internet neutrality proponents believe that the recent change in Congress is likely to boost their efforts to push legislation that would prohibit tiered access to the Internet.

[ . . .]

“The outlook for better, more public-spirited Internet legislation is now quite good,” the group said through a prepared statement.

In fact, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who proposed legislation supporting their cause, is set to lead telecommunications policy for the House majority in 2007. So is U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, who said he would propose a telecommunications reform bill with public interest and net neutrality in mind.

Dingell is positioned to take over as the chair of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which held hearings on the issue during the last congressional session. The committee presides over telecommunications and Internet policies. Markey will chair a subcommittee devoted exclusively to those issues.

SaveTheInternet also sees hope in the U.S. Senate, where all representatives who supported net neutrality were re-elected and several challengers who came out in favor of the issue were also elected.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE