FTC is neutral on Net neutrality
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Both opponents and proponents of Net neutrality legislation claimed a win from an FTC report, issued Wednesday, that declared the commission's essential neutrality on the debate.
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The trade commission hears what's right and wrong with file sharing, but there's no guarantee it will institute regulations. Michael Grebb reports from Washington.
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(InfoWorld) - Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, advocated that the U.S. Congress protect net neutrality and questioned the value of DRM (digital rights management) Thursday. Berners-Lee, speaking before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in the U.S. House of Representatives, said it was "very, very important" for lawmakers to protect the ability of users to access the Web content they want regardless of their ISP. Berners-Lee didn't endorse specific net neutrality proposals largely supported by congressional Democrats, but he said the Web as a communications medium deserves "special treatment" to protect its nondiscriminatory approach to content. While he was growing up in the U.K., there were high penalties for interfering with mail delivery because mail was one of the main ways to communicate, Berners-Lee said. Now, the Web is a major communications medium worthy of protections, he said. One company or country shouldn't control access to the Web, he added. "We are a society only in as much as we are individuals communicating," said Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Consortium and author of the first version of HTML. For the past two years, many e-commerce companies and consumer groups have called on Congress to pass a law prohibiting broadband carriers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors or from speeding up partners' content. In mid-2005, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Communications Commission freed broadband providers from nondiscriminatory carriage rules, and net neutrality backers say large broadband providersÂ like Verizon and ComcastÂ will now be tempted to provide tiered speeds based on which Internet companies pay them the most. Broadband providers and many Republicans have opposed a net neutrality law, andÂ efforts to pass one failed in a Republican-controlled Congress in 2006. Democrats took over Congress this year. While Berners-Lee didn't hear a lot of opposition to his net neutrality comments at the hearing, Representative Mary Bono, a California Republican, challenged his assertion that DRM copy protections could hinder the growth of some parts of the Web. Berners-Lee called for open standards instead of closed DRM technologies. Instead of DRM, copyright holders should "allow people to do the right thing" by providing the information on how to legally use the material, he said. Bono questioned if his idea would prevent mass stealing of copyright materials. "Is that not the equivalent of having a speed limit but not enforcing the speed limit?" she asked. But Berners-Lee suggested DRM limits the market for digital music downloads, echoing recent statements by AppleÂ CEO Steve Jobs. "What is the enforcement for speeding?" he said. "The enforcement for is not that the car grinds to a halt. [Instead of DRM] I'm inclined to make software to allow people to do the right thing first." But Bono said strong protections for digital content are needed. "With great respect to Steve Jobs, he's trying to sell hardware, first and foremost," she said. "I wonder if he would feel the same way about his patents being on the Internet free of patent protection."
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The previous owner of certain Ethernet patents said it wouldn't attempt to collect enormous license fees related to the widely used networking standard, and N-Data can't go back on that word just because they bought those patents, the FTC has ruled in a settlement against the company.
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Google took a step closer to its acquisition of online advertising server DoubleClick on Thursday, when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the sale. One major hurdle still remaining is approval by the European Commission.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has formed a political action committee to exert pressure on the U.S. Congress and promote legislation that benefits the company. The group, called Google NetPAC, saw the light on Thursday, when Google registered it with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, a Google spokesman confirmed via e-mail. "Google NetPAC will support officeholders and candidates who share Google's goal of preserving and promoting the Internet as a free and open platform for information, communication, and innovation," the spokesman wrote. A key legislative and regulatoryÂ concern for Google is net neutrality. Its executives favor a law to force broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast to give all traffic on their networks the same quality of service and speed. In addition to Google, other Internet companies like Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon.com support net neutrality andÂ want Congress to prohibit broadband providersÂ from blocking or degrading Web content and services from potential competitors. Opponents, which include broadband providers and network equipment vendors like Cisco Systems and Qualcomm, say a net neutrality law will let Internet companies like Google continue toÂ ride for "free"Â on broadband networks. Such a law will prevent broadband providers from charging Web companies new fees for higher speeds and a better quality of service, money needed to build faster networks for new bandwidth-intensive services like Internet TV, net neutrality opponents say. If companies like Google don't pay extra, then broadband providers will have to increase fees to consumers, they say. Other regulatory and legislative issues that are likely of concern for Google include Internet privacy, stock-option accounting, law-enforcement access to search engine records and copyright protection. Google also hired former Republican senators Dan Coats and Connie Mack as outside lobbyists, the Google spokesman confirmed. "We've hired outside firms from across the political spectrum that offer effective expertise to communicate our policy messages," he wrote. Other high-tech companies with political action committees include Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay and AOL's parent company Time Warner.
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(InfoWorld) - Fifty-four organizations, including Amazon, Google, and TiVO, have called on the U.S. government to create a national broadband policy, saying there's no plan now in place focused on providing affordable access for all residents. The Open Internet Coalition, in a letter to Congress sent Thursday, said the U.S. government needs to adopt new measures to ensure universal affordable access to broadband, net neutrality and increased competition in the broadband market. The letter is the first step in a concerted effort coalition members will make to push broadband legislation in Congress, members said. The U.S. has fallen to 15th in per capita broadband adoption among the 30 nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, noted Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a media reform advocacy group. "Most alarmingly, we're not doing anything about it," he said. The U.S. lacks "any stated policy" to bring affordable broadband to more residents, added Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group and member of the coalition. "The government doesn't have an overarching vision on how to address these problems," she added. In March 2004, U.S. President George Bush called for universal, affordable broadband for all U.S. residents by this year, but he did not propose major changes to make that happen. It's a major hurdle that providers of cable and DSL control 96 percent of U.S. broadband subscriptions, Scott said. "We've got to face the fact that [U.S. residents] pay more for less bandwidth than our global competitors," he said. Increased access to the Internet is vital to U.S. economic growth, said the letter to Congress. "Now is the time to give this goal the urgency it deserves," the letter said. "As broadband networks become more and more integral to our economic and social life, we are reaching a tipping point where legislation is no longer simply welcome -- it is imperative." Not everyone agrees with the coalition's goals, particularly its call for net neutrality or open access on broadband networks. Large broadband providers like Verizon and AT&T have opposed efforts to pass a net neutrality law that would prohibit providers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors. Such a law would limit providers' business plans and would discourage them from building fast new networks, the providers have said. Last month, some of the coalition's members called for open access requirements in upcoming spectrum auctions at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Scott Wallsten, a senior fellow at free-market think tank the Progress and Freedom Foundation, called the term "open access" a brilliant branding strategy. "How could anyone oppose proposals with names like net neutrality, Internet freedom, and open access?" Wallsten wrote in a newsletter. "But ... these proposals, if implemented, would create a regulatory hell of complicated rules and endless lobbying while undermining incentives to invest in critical wireless and wired broadband infrastructure." Other members of the Open Internet Coalition include eBay, online dating site Match.com, the Consumer Federation of America, CollegeHumor.com, and RealEstate.com.
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When it comes to net neutrality, telecom and Internet companies may be asking for it.
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By Koprowski, Gene  The concept of "net neutrality" sounds quite reasonable in theory, but the policy proposals coming from federal legislators and bureaucrats may in reality be quite discriminatory.
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A Swiss banker declares neutrality on media -- except for Disney.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking the middle ground in the net neutrality debate that pits large telecommunications operators against Internet giants.
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U.S. regulators said Microsoft Corp. does not have to include in its proxy a shareholder proposal demanding that the software maker justify its support for Net neutrality, according to a decision made public on Tuesday.
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A cash-flow problem in a federal program is hindering the ability of many schools and libraries to pay for Internet service. The Federal Communications Commission has ordered
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U.S. regulators said Microsoft Corp.  does not have to include in its proxy a shareholder proposal demanding that the software maker justify its support for Net neutrality, according to a decision made public on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON - A complete rewrite of the U.S. copyright system was just one proposal aired Thursday during a contentious series of panel discussions at a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) workshop on peer-to-peer technology.
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The FTC's peer-to-peer workshop brings opposing sides together, and they agree something should be done, but it's that uncertain something that is causing trouble. Michael Grebb reports from Washington.
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U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras won&#39;t recuse herself from considering the antitrust implications of&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, despite a request from two privacy groups that she do so.