Aaron D's Public Library

21 Aug 08

18 Apr 08

restrictions

Having requested some 204,012
distinct web sites, we found more than 50,000 to be inaccessible from at least
one point in China on at least one occasion

NN blogg opinion

This wholesale privatizing of our commons is in violation of the Constitution and our rights to free speech. Yes we are entering a new paradigm in technology, wired and wireless communication is new to the 20th Century, but our rights to access information, voices and content on a level playing field are the cornerstone of Democracy.

Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally. This allows the network to carry every form of information and support every kind of application. The principle suggests that information networks are often more valuable when they are less specialized – when they are a platform for multiple uses, present and future.
The proposals I have supported focus on the following potential problems:

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
The nation's largest telephone and cable companies -- including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner -- want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006 would have made it a violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act for broadband providers to discriminate against any web traffic, refuse to connect to other providers, or block or impair specific (legal) content. It would also have prohibited the use of admission control to determine network traffic priority. The legislation was approved 20-13 by the House Judiciary committee on May 25, 2006 but was never taken up on the House floor and therefore failed to become law. A bill called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006 was introduced in the US House of Representatives, referencing the principles enunciated by the FCC and authorizing fines up to $750,000 for infractions. It was passed 321-101 by the full House of Representatives on June 8, 2006 but failed to become law when its companion measure was filibustered in the Senate.

On February 25, 2008, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Kevin Martin said that he is "ready, willing and able," to prevent broadband internet service providers from irrationally interfering with their subscribers' internet access.^[18]

On March 27, 2008, Comcast and BitTorrent reached an agreement to work together on network traffic^[19]. Comcast will adopt a protocol-neutral stance "as soon as the end of [2008]", and explore ways to "more effectively manage traffic on its network at peak times."