Free Republic

How Neutral is the Net? by: Rachel Paulk, June 20, 2008 When net neutrality first gained national attention several years ago, the discussion focused on ensuring equality for all sites from the differing internet providers. For example, Google couldn’t pay Comcast to load quicker than Yahoo; nor could the ISPs hold any type of censoring power on the types of sites users chose to frequent. James Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation stated that “Net neutrality… is probably the most talked about and least understood issue I’ve ever come across.” He credited the mystery shrouding the subject to the changing context...

Update: Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet....

NEW YORK (AP) -- You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance? Time Warner Cable Inc. customers -- and, later, others -- may have to, if the company's test of metered Internet access is successful. ADVERTISEMENT On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated...

Excerpt - Well, this should be interesting. Because of scheduling issues, Kevin Martin and Lowell McAdam will be interviewed at the same time. Will the two hit it off on issues of ‘Net neutrality, early termination fees, Open Access or none of the above? ~ snip ~ Pulling up a chart that showcases the lousy broadband situation in the states, Walt kicks the conversation off with a hardball question for Martin: “You’re the chairman of the FCC,” says Walt. “How did you allow this to happen?” Big applause. Martin tries to dodge a bit, suggesting that the chart shows penetration....

Net Neutrality: Who's the Cop and What Type of a Stick Does He Carry? May 15, 2008, 12:00 - 1:30 PM U.S. Capitol Building, Room HC-5 The Internet Caucus Advisory Committee held a luncheon panel discussion featuring former Federal Trade Commission officials and Federal Communication Commission officials discussing how much authority, if any, those agencies have to police alleged "Net Neutrality" problems -- should they arise. The panel detailed and debated the scope of enforcement authority and remedies available to the FTC, FCC and, perhaps, public opinion. AUDIO LINK (MP3) Panelists: * Rebecca Arbogast , Stifel Nicolaus (Moderator) * Dan...

When economic stagnation gripped the country in the 1970s, I was an economics professor in my home state of Texas. Back then when I was teaching a class and needed a real-world example of how government overregulation harmed the economy and stifled innovation, I would point to any number of sectors in the economy. This was the era when making a long-distance call was a big deal. In the wake of the economic malaise of the 1970s, economists began to seriously look at deregulation as a way to enhance economic growth. Airlines, trucking, energy and telecommunications all were opened to...

There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. End this practice and the United States goes from being 3rd world by international broadband standards, to top of the charts and exemplary. Make this change and Net Neutrality becomes a non issue. There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone. What is the dirty little secret ? That your cable company still delivers basic cable networks in analog. Why is this such an important issue ? Because each of those cable networks takes up...

If you haven’t been following the debate on net neutrality, you’re not alone. The details of the issue can lead into realms where only tech geeks and policy wonks dare to tread, but at root there’s a pretty simple question: How much control should network operators be allowed to have over the information on their lines? Most people assume that the Internet is a democratic free-for-all by nature — that it could be no other way. But the openness of the Internet as we know it is a byproduct of the fact that the network was started on phone lines....

In the climactic scene of the Oscar-nominated film "There Will Be Blood," Daniel Day-Lewis's ruthless oil tycoon explains that he has drained all the valuable oil off a neighbor's land. "If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw ... and my straw reaches across the room ... I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!" There could be no more apt analogy for the looming threat now facing our broadband infrastructure. Today, a few savvy Internet users - the bandwidth tycoons in this broadband Wild West - are effectively draining everyone else's Internet...

The man who spoke for Comcast at Harvard last month has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls "network management practices" (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking). Comcast vice president David L. Cohen's latest filing with the Commission claims that regulators can do nothing even if they conclude that Comcast's behavior runs afoul of the FCC's Internet neutrality guidelines. "The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the...

Excerpt - CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Comcast Corp. on Tuesday acknowledged hiring people to fill seats before the start of a contentious federal hearing on how the company manages its broadband network, allowing its employees to take those seats when the filled-to-capacity hearing started. Many people were turned away before Monday's Federal Communications Commission hearing at Harvard Law School, leading critics to accuse Comcast of stifling debate over the company's practice of favoring some forms of Internet traffic over others. Comcast said it hired people to hold seats only after an advocacy group called Free Press urged its backers to...

CFIF today voiced its opposition to the recently released "Net Neutrality" bill sponsored by Representatives Ed Markey and Chip Pickering. "If enacted, the dubiously-titled "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008" would undo many of the framework policies that have fostered growth and innovation in telecommunications services in recent years," said CFIF President Jeffery Mazzella. "This legislation won't preserve Internet freedom. Rather, it will cripple a free and open market that continues to encourage unprecedented innovation and benefits consumers." "This legislation is nothing more than the heavy hand of government dictating the terms of service for the Internet," Mazzella continued.

WASHINGTON -- As Sen. Hillary Clinton faces a money crunch, several of her top fund-raisers are considering using independent organizations to wage their own campaigns on her behalf. At least two sets of Clinton fund-raisers are speaking with lawyers to figure out how to create independent entities to support Mrs. Clinton in Ohio, Texas and other primary contests. Susie Tompkins Buell, the founder of the Esprit clothing company, says she is deciding whether to start her own entity to fund commercials for Mrs. Clinton, or whether to donate to existing groups, such as abortion-rights group Emily's List, that are already...

Welcome to the 2008 general election, YouTube style. No sooner had the polls closed at the end of Super Tuesday, when a video popped up on YouTube attacking newly christened GOP front-runner John McCain where he's most vulnerable: his support for the Iraq war. The 83-second advertisement shows a consumer gamely struggling on the phone with a friendly but unhelpful service representative. It turns out to be the United States government on the line, which informs the befuddled citizen that she has no choice but to pay a hefty monthly recurring charge for the war. "In the past couple of...

Just on the Jay Severin Show, WTKK Radio, Boston... A self-described 24-year-old Obama supporter called Severin on the topic of the presidential campaign. The young man waxed at length about how in this election cycle the 18-29-year-old age group would be voting, for the first time, in enormous numbers. Enormous enough, in fact, to assure a victory for Obama. Severin countered that this group's huge turnout had never happened before and he doubted that it would happen now. The caller then started getting warmed-up, insulting Severin in particular, and conservatives in general as "old" and "on the way out." Severin...

Chances are that as you read this article, it is passing over part of AT&T's network. That matters, because last week AT&T announced that it is seriously considering plans to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws. The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes. But the bizarre twist is that the proposal is such a bad idea that it would be not just a disservice to the public but probably a disaster...

The FCC—and Chairman Kevin Martin in particular—are in hot water with Congress over the way that the Commission is run. While Martin was at CES, telling all who would listen that the FCC will investigate Comcast's traffic-shaping practices, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced a formal investigation of the FCC. The news couldn't be more welcome to the industries that the FCC regulates. The Associated Press reports that a bipartisan group of Representatives from the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday sent a letter to Martin. The group says that Congress will see if the FCC's dealings are "being...

Federal regulators plan to investigate whether Comcast improperly interferes with BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic on its network. The announcement by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin arrived in a panel discussion at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to an Associated Press report Tuesday. Since at least last summer, reports had been circulating that the cable company was throttling BitTorrent traffic, which Comcast promptly denied. But in October, the AP released the results of tests, based on attempts to download the King James Bible, which it said confirmed that Comcast was actively interfering with the practice....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content." They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed. "The phone and...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast Corp. on Tuesday acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet traffic, but said any roadblocks it puts up are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users. The statement was a response to an Associated Press report last week that detailed how the nation's largest cable company was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP also found that Comcast's computers masqueraded as those of its users to interrupt file-sharing connections. Internet watchdog groups denounced Comcast's actions, calling it an example of the kind of abuse that could be curbed with so-called...

NEW YORK - 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. The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users. If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known...

The McCain-Feingold Act is almost universally despised by conservatives. But the unintended consequences of this far-reaching act seem to benefit both the right and the national debate. It has been a month since the New York Times printed MoveOn.org's ad which attacked General Petraeus as "General Betray Us."  The ad backfired on the left to a degree that it is still reverberating. Closer analysis reveals the ad is an informative illustration of our post-McCain-Feingold political realm.The McCain-Feingold bill, also called the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, was passed in 2002. The primary purpose of the act was to reduce the influence that...

The perversely named Fairness Doctrine, which threatened licensed broadcasters with fines if they didn’t “afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views,” as the government defined it, has shown up in the news again recently, as federal lawmakers and liberal media activists have called for increased regulation of a media marketplace that they feel is spinning out of their control. But the push to reimpose the doctrine—which the Reagan administration abandoned in the late 1980s as obsolete and harmful to free speech—may be mostly a diversionary tactic. The Left has a much bigger target in its regulatory crosshairs: the...

Excerpt from Alex Epstein's excellent article "Reject the Latest Push for 'Net Neutrality'" The Internet is not a collectivist commune; it is a free, voluntary, and private association of individuals and corporations harmoniously pursuing their individual goals. (While it began as a government-funded project, the Internet's ultra-advanced state today is the achievement of private network builders, hardware companies, content providers, and customers.) Because the Internet is based on voluntary association, no one can properly compel others for their ad space, bandwidth, publicity--or network priority. Those who create these values have the right to use and profit from them as they...

Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program. The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code. Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States and a dominant one abroad, and such sign-up programs are used by many political candidates and advocacy groups to send...

I've been having trouble with my broadband Internet service lately. It cuts out frequently. The calls to customer service have gotten longer. The actual speed of the service isn't close to what was advertised. And the price has gone up twice in a year. I'd like to take my business elsewhere. But I can't. Even though I live in a large metropolitan area, my local cable company is the only option for broadband at my condo. The local phone company has yet to wire my building for DSL. Satellite broadband -- which costs more for slower speeds -- isn't an...

The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday recommended against additional regulation of high-speed Internet traffic. Deborah Platt Majoras said policymakers should proceed cautiously on the issue of "net neutrality," which is the notion that all online traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers. In a statement issued Wednesday, Majoras said that without evidence of "market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area." In separate remarks before a lawyers' group Wednesday, Majoras said the agency was unaware of any market failure or consumer harm in the...

This Friday, June 15th is the deadline for filing comments with the Federal Communications Commission against the prospect of massive federal regulation of the Internet. MoveOn.org and their liberal allies have been pushing more federal control for some time, and now are about to flood the FCC with comments in support of greater regulation of the Internet. The regulations that MoveOn.org seeks would stifle innovation and prevent Internet companies from offering services in ways that they feel benefit consumers most. These “net neutering” policies would set price controls on Internet content and give federal bureaucrats the power to meddle in...

Anyone over 40 can remember a time when you could count the available TV channels on the fingers of one hand. Now they come in the hundreds. But that's nothing compared to the Internet, with its millions - is it billions yet? - of sites that can do just about anything but wash the dinner dishes. Online, you can find any fact you need, and any lie you'd prefer to believe is true. You can make new friends and keep up with your old ones. You can buy and sell anything, make phone calls, import and export photos and movies,...

A tech legislative priority of congressional Democrats, "net neutrality," threatens America's unique Internet success, because it would reverse America's 11-year, bipartisan policy to promote competition and not regulate the Internet. Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are co-sponsors of Dorgan-Snowe (S.215), a net neutrality bill that for the first time would mandate broadband provide equal treatment to all Internet content. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also supports net neutrality as does House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, who plans a series of hearings soon to promote net neutrality legislation. To justify massive new government intervention in the Internet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UlCXXZTTh8 Here's some background on "Net Neutrality" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jHOn0EW8U&mode=related&search= Basically, it is intentional denial of service on sites by your ISP to guide you in the direction they want you to go in.

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn't speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.   See the sight for more details.  

Beltway Fever has infected the national leaders of the Christian Coalition, and the latest bout of illness has them standing with the ACLU, MoveOn.org, U.S. PIRG, SEIU and the Progressive Democrats of America in support of Net neutrality regulation. Sadly, this is not the first time leadership at the Christian Coalition of America has sided with the forces of big government and against good sense and the rest of the conservative movement. In 2003, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley--also my friend and former House colleague--attempted to pass a voter referendum to broadly raise state taxes. The usual suspects--public employee unions and...

Proponents of Network Neutrality have been relentless at highlighting individual Congress members' failings to protect Internet freedom. Senators John McCain and Ted Stevens have felt the heat in past weeks. This week, the heat is on Virginia Senator George Allen, who MoveOn.org believes tried to pull a fast one on his website. For the record, Allen voted against the Snowe-Dorgan amendment, which was expressly worded to prevent Internet service providers from setting up a two-tiered system that could be easily abused and made into a system of Internet toll roads. Opposition to that type of system is what, at...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said on Tuesday he does not yet have the necessary votes to get legislation to overhaul communications laws through the full Senate. A primary objective of the legislation is to make it easier for big telephone companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications to get a national license for offering subscription television service to compete with cable. Typically they must apply to thousands of local cities. Stevens told reporters he had not yet secured the 60 votes needed to end debate on the Senate floor, known as cloture, and...

Congress is in the midst of debating whether online-service providers can favor certain Web sites or services. Commentator Scott Cleland says the best way to combat this is by keeping the Internet free and open to competition. It’s really a debate over dueling visions of the future of the Internet. Net neutrality proponents worry that telecom, wireless and cable companies might one day favor their own content and applications over others. They want Congress to pass a new law to ban that practice by regulating the price of broadband service and the way it’s sold. Now, net competition proponents, like...

Sen. Hillary Clinton has thrown her support behind "network neutrality” regulations that conservatives say mark the first major attempt by the federal government to regulate the Internet. In a mass e-mail to supporters, Clinton writes: "I want to tell you a little bit about Net neutrality, why I believe it’s so important to our democracy, and what you can do to help.” In the Net neutrality debate, cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service, including AT&T and Verizon, are pitted against major Internet players like Google and Amazon and large-scale users, like the left-wing MoveOn.org. The Internet providers are...

Those who currently struggle to maintain what is called “Net Neutrality” on the internet I think have taken too limited an approach to their struggle. What they ask is to maintain an existing status quo that had already been eroded from the original promise and potential of the internet against those who wish to change it even further. This to me leaves for a poor negotiating position when congress loves to bridge difference with half measures, and even limited compromise between the current status quo and proposed changes would still be disastrous. This would be much like North American civil...

When it comes to updating our telecom laws, we have taken our proverbial eyes off the prize. We should be focusing on franchise reform, which would remove (in the Federal Communication Commission's own words) the "most important policy-relevant barrier to entry" for video and broadband competition and finally get the "twin titans" of the cable companies and the phone companies to duke it out. Instead, we're becoming sidetracked by a hasty push for stringent legislation to remedy the undefined concept of Net neutrality, without careful analysis of the possible consequences. Not only would working Americans stand to lose $8.2 billion...

First, let us separate the hype from the facts. The "free internet" is not going to end, and it might not even go any slower. The two-tier system will not threaten democracy, but it is still a bad idea. My first problem with the concept of a two-teir network is that it attempts to create an artificial scarcity situation to squeeze money out of big companies while robbing you of services you have already paid for.

When MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition are writing a letter together, you can bet something deeply troubling is going on in Congress. And it is -- Internet freedom is under attack.     Internet operators like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are lobbying Congress to give them more control over what Americans see and do online. They want to eliminate "Net Neutrality," the rule that has been in place since the Internet began that prevents Internet providers from deciding which Web sites open easily on your computer.     Net Neutrality ensures that Republican and Democrat Web sites open just as quickly, regardless of the...

FINDING IT HARD TO UNDERSTAND the "net neutrality" debate? On one side are the hip, cool, billionaire web service companies like Google, eBay, Yahoo, and even Microsoft. Net neutrality is their rallying cry. Despite the fact that they are basically schlocky ad salesmen on a grand scale, they're pushing this quaint, self-serving '60s notion that the Internet is a town square--all for one and one for them, or something like that. Everyone should be allowed to hang out in the town square and use it as they please, one low price, eat all you want at the buffet.On the other...

Keep the Net Neutral or: Video Killed the Internet Star? (What follows is an expanded version of the "SA Perspectives" editorial that will appear in the August issue of Scientific American. However, in view of both the importance and the time sensitivity of the subject, I've decided to preview it here and now.) If the online universe has had an unofficial slogan to date, it might be the caption to that famous New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." Not only do digital communications allow anonymity, but the underlying TCP/IP protocols that govern...

Why should some telcos be allowed to send some bits at one price and other bits at another? The battle continues.Should a college student downloading a movie with BitTorrent pay his ISP more than a senior citizen trading emails with a grandchild, as phone companies argue? At its simplest, that’s what the current fight over Net neutrality in the United States comes down to. Networks want to impose a pay-per-use system based on a tiered formula that would prioritize traffic, and increase charges to third-party companies (which, in effect, would pass the extra charges on to their customers) for using...

The Washington Post Online published an editorial yesterday seeking to debunk pro-Net Neutrality arguments, erring on the side of non-regulation. Point by point, this column begs to differ. From the WP editorial: More than 60 percent of Zip codes in the United States are served by four or more broadband providers that compete to give consumers what they want. Here we begin a numbers game. Free Press reports that major cable companies and DSL providers control 98 percent of the residential and small-business broadband market. Other providers have only come on the scene recently because the FCC required telecommunications companies...

What is this ball of colors? It is the North American Internet, or more specifically a map of just about every router on the North American backbone, (there are 134,855 of them for those who are counting)...

US politicians have rejected attempts to enshrine the principle of net neutrality in legislation. Some fear the decision will mean net providers start deciding on behalf of customers which websites and services they can visit and use. The vote is a defeat for Google, eBay and Amazon which wanted the net neutrality principle protected by law. All three mounted vigorous lobbying campaigns prior to the vote in the House of Representatives. Tier fear The rejection of the principle of net neutrality came during a debate on the wide-ranging Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act). Among other things, this...

Congress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway. At the center of the debate is the most important public policy you've probably never heard of: "network neutrality." Net neutrality means simply that all like Internet content must be treated alike and move at the same speed over the network. The owners...

FREEDOMWORKS PREPARES TO LAUNCH NEW AD CAMPAIGN AGAINST NET NEUTRALITY Ad, new website designed to draw attention of conservative House Members. Washington, D.C. -- FreedomWorks is leading the fight to stop government regulation of the Internet. This week FreedomWorks is rolling out a new ad campaign and the website www.neuters.net targeting conservative Representatives. The purpose is to draw attention to the liberal, big government coalition of supporters of “Net Neutrality” regulations, and ask why good conservatives would consider joining them. “Net Neutrality” regulations would give the federal bureaucracy unprecedented new power over the Internet and Internet content. Not surprisingly, the...

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".The term 'network neutrality' relates to the regulation of the Internet or more specifically, to...