MPAA: Net neutrality could hurt antipiracy tech
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Blog: The movie industry warns federal regulators not to create any rules that would encourage  peer-to-peer "free riding" or stifle new content-filtering techniques.
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The House of Representatives passes a bill that would sic the feds on people using peer-to-peer networks to swap songs or movies. Copyright infringers may face up to three years in prison.
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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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When it comes to net neutrality, telecom and Internet companies may be asking for it.
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Congressional lawmakers are taking a cue from Hollywood with an aim to beef up penalties against people who illegally swap copyrighted movies and songs over the Internet. Meanwhile, lawmakers also are targeting spyware and hackers with the threat of jail time for evil cyberspace deeds.
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As part of three-pronged, anti-piracy attack launched Tuesday, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) plans to release free software to help parents determine what movie and music titles their children have stored on a computer, along with any
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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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Movie industry lobbyists quietly push California lawmakers to quash a measure that would have outlawed HP-style tactics designed to fraudulently obtain private information about consumers. The MPAA argues its antipiracy efforts would be harmed. By Ryan Singel.
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(InfoWorld) - Asian regulators should think twice about followingÂ the U.S. lead on net neutrality, or risk undermining the economic incentive for Asian carriers to build and maintain faster networks, according to speakers at the CommunicAsia Summit in Singapore. Regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore show signs of enshrining a policy of net neutrality for future networks, and that's not necessarily a positive development, said Peter Waters, a partner at law firm Gilbert+Tobin. Net neutrality is a term for policies that prevent carriers from giving preference on their networks to traffic from their own sites, or charging Web sites extra for preferential treatment. "We need to back off a bit," Waters said. Regulators should wait until a problem arises before stepping in to set new policies, he said. Waters and others speaking at CommunicAsia argued that carriers must be able to collect revenue for the different types of content that crosses their networks. Asia Netcom, which operates a backhaul network in Asia, claimed the right to charge content providers for the data carried on its network, particularly when that data is valuable. For example, Google and others use Asia Netcom's network to transmit advertisements and other content that have significant value. "Why do I keep providing that [service] for free?" said Mark Simpson, the company's chief operating officer. Waters proposed a revenue-sharing model, where backhaul carriers receive a portion of the revenue from content providers for the data carried on their networks. Net neutrality is a contentious issue and is generallyÂ opposed by carriers, who argue it reduces the incentive to build new networks. However, in March, researchers at the University of Florida conducted a study using game theory analysis that found the opposite to be true. Allowing carriers to charge content providers for the data they carry provides less incentive for the carriers to expand and improve their networks, they found. "The incentive for the broadband service provider to expand under net neutrality is unambiguously higher than when the principle of net neutrality is abandoned," the researchers wrote in the conclusion of their report. Â
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â should resist calls to impose net neutrality regulations on broadband providers because such rules could hurt the Internet, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)Â said Thursday.
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com December 14, 2004, 11:46 AM PT. The Motion Picture Association of America launched a new legal campaign Tuesday targeting the BitTorrent and eDonkey file-swapping networks, two technologies widely used to trade movies online.
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Internet radio gets ready for a fight after the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board quietly releases a retroactive rate hike that could mean financial disaster from music streamers. By Eliot Van Buskirk.
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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has dropped the hammer on yet another BitTorrent enabler, catching Dallas-based LokiTorrent in its net. LokiTorrent, which offered pointers to unauthorized movie downloads within the...
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Blog: Large Webcasters and the music industry are butting heads over a compromise to heightened fees that would require Net radio operators to implement anti-streamripping technology.
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Should creators insist on copy protection and other technologies to block the unauthorized spread of their works? That's the first question in a week-long debate on Bits between Rick Cotton, the general counsel of NBC Universal, and Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School.
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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is following the Recording Industry Association of Americaâs (RIAA) footsteps by filing lawsuits against BitTorrent clients.
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Movie studios and record labels on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that Internet "peer to peer" networks cannot be held liable when their users copy music and movies without permission.