Net Non-Neutrality

I've been on a Web hiatus of sorts. I've been enjoying the improving weather, getting reacquainted with exercise, and vacation came to end sending me back to the wonders of underemployment. "Wonder" as in how-long-can-I-keep-this-going? Things are tight but all in all if there's a time not to be trapped in a cubicle, it's summer time in Bahflo.

As a side note, my "archives" for this blog don't seem to be working right. I'll need computer tech Spike Rite's assitance. I reviewed the template and saw that there's a reference to their existence. They're just not showing up. Prolly cuz I have too much shiznit on the left margin.

I'm really pissed off about the C.O.P.E. bill vote in Congress that took place on Thursday. It's the telecom industry's way of dictating how they provide access to content. Simply put, if they can't make any money from Web sites and portals, why make it easy to get to? My congressman voted in favor of this legislation. He'll hear from me on Monday. Here's a pertinent excerpt of the House Report on this legislation. Pay attention to the red text. If you're keeping score it's House Report 109-470, part 2 of 2 - COMMUNICATIONS OPPORTUNITY, PROMOTION, AND ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2006

THE BILL (C.O.P.E.) FAILS TO PRESERVE THE FREE, OPEN AND INNOVATIVE INTERNET

The Internet was born out of taxpayer-funded projects starting in the 1960's. The pioneering use of `packet-switching,' as opposed to traditional circuit-switching, also underscored a key founding feature of the nascent Internet, namely, that of open architecture networking. As an open architecture network, packets could traverse various independent networks from various providers to reach their destinations. In short, this meant that the Internet itself was not `owned' by anyone.

In 1991, the U.S. Government decided to take this Federal network and permit its commercialization. The astounding growth of the Internet since that time is a tribute to the fact that its open architecture permitted individuals to innovate, invest, exchange ideas, and traffic on a nondiscriminatory basis. This, in turn, fostered yet greater expansion of the Internet.

From 1991 to August of 2005, the Internet's nondiscriminatory nature was also protected from being compromised by historic communications laws that required such nondiscriminatory treatment by telecommunications carriers. In other words, no commercial telecommunications carrier could engage in discriminatory conduct regarding Internet traffic and Internet access because it was prohibited by law. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, by removing barriers to greater competition, induced the rapid introduction of broadband service across the country, with a concomitant growth in Internet access and activity.

These broadband networks have become the lifeblood of our digital economy. They also hold the promise of promoting further innovation in and creation of new markets and technologies, applications and services, jobs, and furthering the widespread dissemination of educational, civic, and cultural information across communities and societies. The worldwide leadership that the U.S. provides in high technology is directly related to the government-driven policies over decades which have ensured that telecommunications networks are open to all lawful uses and all users. The Internet, which is accessible every day to more and more Americans on such broadband networks, was also founded upon an open architecture protocol and as a result it has provided low barriers to entry for that unleashed, explosive growth of web-based content, applications, and services.

In August of 2005, however, the Federal Communications Commission re-classified broadband access to the Internet in a way that removed such legal protections. It did not take long for the telecommunications carriers to respond to that decision. Just a few months later, the Chairman of then-SBC Communications made the following statement in a November 7 Business Week interview: `Now what they [Google, Yahoo, MSN] would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. * * *'

In a December 1, 2005, Washington Post article, a BellSouth executive indicated that his company wanted to strike deals to give certain Web sites priority treatment in reaching computer users. The article noted this would `significantly change how the Internet operates' and that the BellSouth executive 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.' Meaning, that if the rival firm did not pay, or was not permitted to pay for competitive reasons, its service presumably would not `operate with the same quality' as BellSouth's own product.

Finally, on January 6, 2006, the CEO of Verizon, in an address to the Consumer Electronics Show, also indicated that Verizon would now be the corporate arbiter of how traffic would be treated when he said the following: `We have to make sure [content providers] don't sit on our network and chew up our capacity.'

The corrosion of historic policies of nondiscrimination by the imposition of artificial bottlenecks by broadband network owners endangers economic growth, innovation, job creation, and First Amendment freedom of expression on such networks. Broadband network owners should not be able to determine who can and who cannot offer services over broadband networks or over the Internet. The detrimental effect to the digital economy would be quite severe if such conduct were permitted and became widespread. The COPE Act permits such conduct and as a result, puts the Internet in jeopardy.

It has been suggested that the telecom industry was given this Congressional victory in exchange for its cooperation on nationwide surveillance matters with the feds. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now made this observation on her June 9th program. You can watch or listen to this program online. Once again, sold down the river for the highest bidder. For more information see Save the Internet