A nice overview today of Network Neutrality and the role of big telecommunications companies like Comcast in fighting the much needed standard from HuffPo.
Apr 192008
A little update on Network Neutrality.
Mar 022008
When we first started talking about Network Neutrality, one of the things that impressed me the most about the concept was how much varied support it was receiving. Groups that normally would tear each other’s throats out if they came anywhere near each other were managing to play nice to support a cause. You can see the full list of supporting groups and marvel at their diversity at Save The Internet or read about it in my other posts on Network Neutrality.
Lately, the people in favor of a nanny state who are against Network Neutrality have found some surprising allies of their own: civil liberties groups. It saddens me to see the roster of the nanny state movement enhanced with groups that in my mind are supposed to support freedom, much less to see that they are backed by folks like ComCast. Should the freedom of the people and things they represent come at the price of freedom for all, or is it finally time we look past social and racial divides to create a true free world where free speech is available for everyone?
This speaks to something I truly believe in, letting go of the past to embrace the future. I think the wrongs perpetrated against some of the groups these organizations represent are atrocious. I think that small subsets of society still perpetrate wrongs against people and things they were raised to hate. But I believe even more firmly that clinging to the past and legislating behavior and freedom of speech and curtailing the ability to have a free and open internet is the first step toward making the problem worse, not overcoming it.
Fight against the nanny state. Go to the SaveTheInternet and raise your voice for Network Neutrality. Keep the internet open for all freedom of speech and freedom of enterprise. After all, free speech doesn’t mean just the speech you like. It means freedom for all to speak, no matter what.
Where do you come down on the issue of Network Neutrality?
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Comcast came under the gun for its throttling practices earlier this year when it attacked users of a site called BitTorrent by preventing them from getting to or using the site. That was a blatant case of censorship and abuse of an ISP’s power that goes against the grain of Net Neutrality, and internet users spoke up with some help from a site called Torrent Freak. The attention brought to the issue by users got the FCC interested in the problem, a major step for Net Neutrality supporters such as myself.
Already I can here cries of “But file sharing is illegal!”. No, that is what companies like the RIAA, MPAA and others would like you to believe, but not all file sharing is illegal, and not all people who use P2P networks are there for “free music” or “pirated software”. The legal powers that be are still hammering out fair use laws in a new age of digital media, and until they are finished, the actual language of what is legal and what is not is pretty grey, though fair use usually means once you buy it you can make copies for safekeeping and back up purposes, put a copy on a digital device like an iPod, etc (the RIAA would like that changed, but so far they haven’t succeeded).
Contrary to popular misconception, P2P sites like BitTorrent are not the sole domain of hunched, basement dwelling hacker stereotypes amassing vast quantities of illegal music, porn, movie and software files. These sites are also used by businesses and regular people who need file sharing solutions for scattered offices, traveling employees, distant friends and family and more. Site like BitTorrent simply offer a simple way to share files, period. How people use that has more to do with the moral codes of the individual than with BitTorrent. ComCast’s throttling and blockage affects both legitimate and illegitimate users.
What ComCast has been doing is what every ISP wants to do: control what a user sees, which then gives them a way to control ad revenue, slow connection speeds, censor content (forget freedom of speech and access to information in a throttled society) and so much more. It is a direct violation of the principals of Net Neutrality that have allowed freedom of information to flourish and entrepreneurs like me to succeed in the new digital world. I’ve been ranting about the need for preservation of Net Neutrality on here for a long time now.
In the case of ComCast verses its users, the FCC held hearings this past Monday to determine the extent of the issue. Adding insult to the injury of its throttling shenanigans, ComCast actually paid people to take up seats and prevent the public from entering to voice their opinion, which automatically tells me they know what they are doing is actionable. You can read more about the hearing and ComCast’s draconian tactics to keep the public silent here and here.
Members of the FCC, along with industry representatives, legal scholars and pro-neutrality advocates spoke at the hearing, which drew an overflow crowd.
“The Internet is as much mine and yours as it is AT&T’s and Comcast’s,” said U.S. Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
At the hearing, ComCast openly admitted using hacker techniques against its own users, as well as other crimes against the people who pay for its services. One of the FCC hearing panelists put it this way:
One of the panelists (sorry, they all sound the same) immediately replied to this by pointing out that congestion was not important. He compared the TCP reset to a conversation between two people where a third party – who pretends to be one of the persons engaged in the conversation – says “Stop, this conversation is over”. He added: “I find it uncomfortable that someone in the middle is creating a message to you that appears to come from me, I have a lot of trouble with that.”
Luckily, it looks s thought the FCC was as troubled as users have been by the limitations and interference being perpetrated against users by ComCast, and seems willing to step in to fix it. Meanwhile, if you were one of the public barred from the hearing by ComCast’s seat holding practices, or live outside the area and want to be heard in favor of Net Neutrality, you can go to Save The Internet and write the FCC here.
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How will your rep vote?
The major papers took a look at what happened on the floor yesterday — particularly the defeat of the SJC bill — and declare that it was a great day for the telecoms.
NOW LISTENING: the squeals of civil liberties being strangled. Oh, and The Cure, A Few Hours After This
This month, on January 26th, University of San Francisco will hold a summit on Network Neutrality. This is one of the key issues facing the Internet today, and if you are in the area and can attend I highly recommend it. You can read more on how I feel about the important of Network Neutrality in previous posts, and find out more about how to fight for the cause at Save The Internet’s web site.
The University of San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Bulletin will be hosting ”The Toll Roads? The Legal and Political Debate Over Net Neutrality” to be held on January 26, 2008, at the Fromm Institute on the University of San Francisco main campus. The Symposium will be a gathering where the legal community will join together with political scientists, economists, communications experts and students to engage in a day of presentation and discussion of the issues surrounding Network Neutrality (list of panelists).
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Read how here. Show support for repealing this awful bill by leaving comments on the Profy article and writing your congressman.
In recent Network Neutrality news, Comcast has pulled a stunt that clearly shows it is NOT planning to follow the doctrine of Network Neutrality, going as far as to state that it is against allowing users to use the internet freely. By blocking BitTorrent, Comcast has given Network Neutrality supporters more concrete ammunition in the fight to save the internet.
Last week the Associated Press reported that “Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.” Specifically, the AP said that the company was blocking the ability of subscribers to upload files using the BitTorrent file sharing network.
BitTorrent is somewhat different than the Napster type file sharing networks of old that most people think about when they hear the phrase “file sharing”. File sharing ability is not about copyright infringement, but instead about regular users ability to conduct business and live and play online. If you need to share a large file with a client or family member to get something done, BitTorrent is usually the way to go, and with Comcast blocking it many businesses and regular users are hobbled.
(CBS) The advocates for network neutrality have an unlikely new ally in Comcast. The cable TV company, which is also one of the nation’s leading high-speed Internet providers, is officially opposed to proposed legislation that would force it to treat all of its customers equally. But its recent actions have actually strengthened the argument that something must be done to protect consumers against an oligopoly of providers that can control what we can do with our own DSL and cable modems.
Comcast also announced a new fee structure in my area, where they are the only game in town. Now, to continue to get the vital high speed internet access I require for working from home (3 MBPS), the current steep price of $50 a month is not enough for Comcast. that price is already a struggle for many, but now Comcast plans to charge nearly $100 for that speed, offering a sub par level of speed for the current price. Are the people who have trying to tell me the big Telcos would actually play nice and not get greedy ove the internet ready to cry uncle yet? Thought so.
For more on what you can do to fight for Network Neutrality, visit Save The Internet and view the Network Neutrality topic on this blog.
I hope so, because the fight isn’t over. This graphic is an illustration, in the most basic way, of why it is important to keep up the fight. If we don’t, this could be our future online:
For more on my thoughts about Network Neutrality, see my previous posts (they are legion).
Jul 272007
It’s one of those days where you just feel your age. Not old, necessarily, just… not youthful. First, my youngest sister now is living on her own, in college, with a job. I’m not sure why that made me feel less youthful, but it did. I mean, 90% of the time I walk around thinking I’m 21 in my head, you know? Now she is 21. Yikes. Then, I went to the eye doctor and got told I had astigmatism in both eyes, worse in the right, and received my first ever prescription for glasses at age 35. I suppose I should count myself lucky – the rest of my family has worn glasses for many years. I was the last hold out. Still, the astigmatism thing means no Lasik (unless they make huge improvements in the surgery over the years) and that contacts are harder to fit and wear – so glasses all the time.
I picked out a pair of funky, punky purple glasses that I loved. A lady in the store told me I should get glasses more “my age”. Hey, fuck you random store patron. My eyeballs, my attitude, my clothes, my face. Back. Off. Maybe I do look weird in them, but I don’t think I care. I may die my hair purple and blonde to match. I thought they looked cute, just kind of slanty and purple. Well, as cute as glasses can look. Anyway, I go get them in a week. I also heard from an old dear friend this week, causing me to think about the time in my life when we were together. Holy hell did it suddenly seem a long time ago. Again, that youthful feeling I walk around with in my head got a blow.
Last, but not least, someone who went to the same school where honey and I met wrote a book about it. It was a fucked up place and I was a fucked up kid, and I don’t like to think about it much. She was there after we were, so I know many of the practices were less harsh when she was there. So, read her book and multiply the scary, freaky, cult crap by 100 and you know why honey and I do not necessarily think of our high school years fondly. The biggest positive thing we got out of the school was each other. Thank goodness they shut the hellhole down. Just thinking back to the fact that it’s been 20 years since we escaped hell graduated that school and you know what the last straw for my usual youthful exuberance was.
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Via Digg: Full Satirical Article Here
[Tongue In Cheek] AT&T chief Ed Whitacre handed the keys over to his replacement Randall Stephenson yesterday, but not before giving a rousing pep talk to fellow executives in the company’s San Antonio board room.
Excerpt:
“There’s a problem. It’s called Net Neutrality,” Whitacre told the heirs to AT&T’s telecommunications empire. “Well, frankly, we say to hell with that. We’re gonna put up some toll booths and start charging admission.”This statement echoes those made in the press by Whitacre and Stephenson over the last two years.
(note: video removed due to messing up my blog design. why, oh why does word press not just ACCEPT you tube, already???)
Go to Save The Internet for more information on how you can join the fight for Network Neutrality.
See my past posts on Network Neutrality here.
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Tags: Net Neutrality, NEtwork Neutrality, Save The Internet, AT&T, Cingular, ASsshattery
Technorati Tags: Net Neutrality, NEtwork Neutrality, Save The Internet, AT&T, Cingular, ASsshattery
I’ve been advocating for Network Neutrality for a long time on this blog. In past posts I’ve gushed about how the issue has brought completely disparate groups of people and organizations together to fight for a common cause. One example of two groups that find themselves in the odd position of working together for a common cause for once is über-liberal MoveOn Org and the ultra conservative Christian Coalition.
These two groups normally find themselves butting heads politically, but the need for the Network Neutrality legislation to keep the Internet the neutral territory that it currently is has become one that touches both sides of the fence in equal measure. Both groups (and many others like them that find themselves working together for once) are deeply involved in the fight to keep the big telecom companies from being able to restrict the Internet’s flow of information, speed and access to the public.
From this article in InformationWeek, the Christian coalition speaks out this week on how they hope to help in the fight for Network Neutrality. They are hoping to draw attention to how Network Neutrality helps their supporters and people like them, and have included such talking points as equating Network Neutrality with other issues important to the traditional family. It’s an unusual stance, and it serves to clearly outline that Network Neutrality is a universal issue – liberal or conservative, religious or apathetic, old or young, big business or small start up. Everyone needs to fight for Network Neutrality.
Combs’ traditionally conservative group weighed in on the same side of the issue as MoveOn.org Civic Action, a liberal grassroots group.
“We believe that net neutrality is a true family issue,” she said. “We believe that it will affect millions of families around the country. Most of our state chairmen have Web sites, and most of our churches have Web sites. Most churches rely on the Internet — some even have sermons on the Internet now.”
To read more of my past articles on Network Neutrality click here.
To see the full list of organizations and power players that are finding it possible to get along for a common cause, click here.
Tags: Network Neutrality
Technorati Tags: Network Neutrality
The FCC likes to have its fingers in every pie, even pies that belong in the kitchen of other people, like Network Neutrality. They have launched yet another “study” on various aspects of Network Neutrality. I can’t decide if the purpose of this “study” is to find a reason to be involved where they aren’t needed, to make sure Network Neutrality is here to stay (that would be good) or to make sure Network Neutrality is done away with (that would be bad).
Regardless of their ultimate motive, you can read more about the study and form your own opinion here. You can read more about Network Neutrality by clicking the Network Neutrality Category on this blog in the sidebar, or by visiting Save the Internet.
Tags: Network Neutrality FCC
First, we get Pelosi, known for supporting Network Neutrality , as the new House Majority Leader. This is great news for the fight to save the internet.
Then, on December 28th AT&T executives agree to adhere to Network Neutrality conditions in order to secure FCC approval for their mega-merger with BellSouth. This sets a precedent that is sorely needed in the fight for Net Neutrality in spite of other issues inherent in the merger.
A bi-partisan bill for Network Neutrality was introduced this year .
Tell Congress you want Net Neutrality here .
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Tags: network neutrality
I had to write for a deadline, so I set the DVR. Honey saw the “your show will go to channel ## in ## seconds” graphic and clicked CANCEL RECORDING. To be fair, I didn’t tell him I was recording something. Still, I missed it. Does anyone have a link to broadcast online? Perhaps a transcript?
Now Listening: The Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks…
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