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Net Neutrality 6-05-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

A think tank issues a report favorable to it’s funders? Shocking! by George

Can you believe it? The Heritage Foundation issues a brief against net neutrality without disclosing its relationship to companies also against it: . . .

Nothing Neutral about Net Neutrality

The issue is more complicated than this — and even goes so far as to granting corporations the same 1st amendment rights that individual citizens have. Just as a citizen has the right to disagree with something and to express that disagreement by NOT speaking in favor of it, so too a corporation can choose to NOT speak in favor of or support in any way something it disagrees with. A newspaper does not have to print an editorial it does not support. That sounds ok you say. But how about: An ISP does not have to deliver an e-mail it does not support?

Statistics Lie – Are They Alone?

I’ll be damned! There’s the $200 Billion! Right there! They’ve been using it to eliminate competition and drive their argument that they need more to improve the infrastructure.

Don’t we feel good now that we have been giving them our money so they can screw us? How’s it feel to have some arrogant human like Ed Whitacre tell us they’re “HIS PIPES.” They’re our damn pipes Ed – we’ve already paid for them and for your salary also!

Putting all the talk of packets, fiber optics, infrastructure, last mile, pipes etc. aside, the bottom line is that the Telco’s have a money issue at stake. It isn’t about research and development, it isn’t about improvement, it’s about making more! And they don’t care about us. This argument that its about charging the content providers like Google? Just lame stuff because that will all filter down to you and I anyway.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 6-04-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Tangled Web [via Daily Kos]

We follow the story of Blip.tv, an ambitious video-streaming startup. They’re fighting for a corner of the Internet marketplace in the midst of a battle over so-called ‘net neutrality’ — the idea that all Internet content and websites are given the same access to audiences and customers.

If telecommunication giants have their way, companies like Blip.tv might be forced to compete in a marketplace wherein firms with large coffers can buy access to greater bandwidth and faster Internet speeds, leaving sites who can’t afford to pay in the slow lane.

Craig Aaron of Free Press, a media watchdog group, says big telecom companies have declared open season on ‘Net neutrality.’ He’s afraid these companies will dictate how we use the Internet.

“I think one of the beauties of the Internet is that it’s been open to views across the political spectrum. And if you hand the control of the information so that some can be preferred over others, you’re going to be handing that control to the big media companies that already control our television, airwaves, radio, you name it,” Aaron says.

For their part, telecom companies argue that a fast lane on the Internet for those willing to pay will allow them to make a return on their multibillion-dollar investment in broadband infrastructure. At present, companies such as Verizon and AT&T only charge for access to the Internet, but make virtually no money from content.

Net Neutrality Is More Than Meets The Eye

What’s bewildering in the net neutrality debate is that both sides say they have the same goals – they want the Internet to maintain its usefulness, to keep maturing, and to continue to get better. At first glance, it would be easy to think that one side wants that done via government regulation and the other through the free market. But that’s really not the case. Network neutrality is a much more complex issue than “Big Business vs. Consumer Rights” or “Big Government vs. Free-market Competition”.

Realist View on Net Neutrality: Only the Lawyers Win

Ray Gifford offers a realist’s prognostication on the likely effects of network neutrality: only the lawyers win.

Not the end of the world if network neutrality laws pass, not the end of the world if they fail to pass. Only, if network neutrality becomes law, low latency high-speed service will be routed through “private networks” while ordinary traffic travels via the “public network” internet. The distinctions between the two will be somewhat arbitrary, but important to the law, and that is why lawyers win. Overall, a sensible if not too hopeful view.

Compare the calm Gifford tone to the more alarmist sounds of eBay CEO Meg Whitman (that’s her smiling face in the picture) in an email sent to members of the “eBay community”: . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Net Neutrality 6-03-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

This is what started it all

FYI, here’s the article that but a bee in the bonnet of the special interests who’re trying to shackle the Internet with their so-called net-neutrality regulations:

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

Or, Smith said, his company should be allowed to charge a rival voice-over-Internet firm so that its service can operate with the same quality as BellSouth’s offering.

Remedial First Amendment For The Net Neutrality Crowd

I’ve noticed lately that some net neutrality advocates have taken to calling neutrality legislation the “First Amendment of the Internet”. Allow me to point out that the first five words of the First Amendment are “Congress shall make no law …”

When it comes to our communications systems, our first priority should be to keep Congress out of it. The First Amendment says, when it comes to speech, the government simply does not make the call. It is not a question of debating right and wrong in the hallowed halls; the Constitution says simply, the government has no say.

Broadband Providers Lobby Against Internet Neutrality

We’ve been enjoying a resource that many have just assumed would continue. Consider some of the other changes that are occuring. Newspapers are going out of business all over America. Many, if not most, big city papers have been bought out by huge multi-media companies. Those media companies have shown an inclination to limit our access to the news to the point that a paid public service statement from the United Church of Christ is rejected by network TV and a book that lists the top 25 censored news stories is published annually in America.

Newspapers and other written media have been an important part of our democracy since Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” and helped light the fire of revolution and independence from a monarchy bent on exploiting, not nurturing it’s colonies. Today we face a different kind of threat. Very few men control virturally all of our news in the mainstream media and they’ve demonstrated a willness to limit even big stories like Downing St. Memos are still not widely known by Americans.

Al Gore characterized our democracy as “hollowed out” by a dearth of editorial variety in the “marketplace of ideas”. He called for the preservation of freedom on the Internet

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Net Neutrality 6-02-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

E-BAY Comes Out in Support of Net Neutrality!

Today, as a registered Seller on E-Bay, I received an e-mail from the E-Bay President and CEO Meg Whitman making a strong case for Net neutrality. Ms Whitman has come out very strongly in support of blocking passage of any bill(s) that would allow the telephone and cable companies to create a “two-tiered” system of network access.

I think this is an excellent and well written letter that clearly explains what the Telecoms are attempting to accomplish. I will post the letter in its entirety:

Net Neutrality and Snakes on Rocketboom today

Not that we ever need an excuse to get our daily dose of Rocketboom, but in today’s episode, Amanda Congdon covers Net Neutrality in between her rants on Snakes on a Plane.

Boiling the Frog – a Net Neutrality Metaphor by Art Brodsky

The metaphor goes like this: If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put a frog in warm water, and gradually raise the temperature, it will become acclimated, until it becomes cooked. Gross, but accurate. This is what the telephone companies and their allies who sell them equipment are doing. The metaphor was on display last week when Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke testified before the Senate Commerce Committee. Verizon is not trying to do away with the current Internet, Tauke said. (Water warm).

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE