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DROID-buddies Verizon and Google offer net neutrality truce
Amidst all the rancor that we’ve seen during the last few weeks over the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed net neutrality rules comes a joint filing by Verizon and Google that asks a refreshing question. What do the antagonists have in common regarding this vexing problem? “Because our businesses rely on each other, it is appropriate for us to jointly discuss a number of things,” wrote Alan Davidson of Google and Thomas Tauke of Verizon on Thursday, such as “how we ensure that consumers get the information, products and services they want online; encourage investment in advanced networks; and ensure the openness of the web around the world.” And so they’ve come up with a set of broad principles and the outline of a voluntary industry-wide system for handling network management disputes, with government intervention included only in the most dire cases—a set of “overarching values that create a framework to guide players throughout the Internet space.”
Continue reading »What Big Content wants from net neutrality (hint: protection)
The swollen FCC docket on network neutrality is now closed after more than 10,000 comments were filed. There are some truly odd entries in the docket, including one by “Rosemary’s Baby” that basically has to be seen to be believed (PDF). But slightly less odd were the filings of two heavy hitters in Washington—the MPAA and the RIAA—which weighed in on network neutrality.
Continue reading »Why the Kankakee County Farm Bureau hates net neutrality
The Kankakee County Farm Bureau wants to stop net neutrality. So does the Erie Neighborhood House, along with Downtown Springfield Inc, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties, and the mayor of North Chicago. The organizations all share several things: they are located in Illinois, they want the FCC to focus on broadband adoption rather than net neutrality, and…
Continue reading »Comcast wants "clear rules," even if it means net neutrality
Comcast wants “clear rules” from the FCC when it comes to network management, and it wants them so badly that it’s even willing to accept network neutrality as the price of getting them. What the huge ISP does not want is the kind of ambiguity that led to so much acrimony about its P2P blocking in 2008, and which is now being hashed out in a DC courtroom .
Continue reading »When do net neutrality "anecdotes" become "data"?
In our coverage of debates over the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to enforce its proposed Internet nondiscrimination rules , we’ve taken a look at pro and con arguments over whether Congress gave the agency net neutrality powers. But the question of statutory authority isn’t the only challenge facing the FCC’s suggested regulations—rules that would sanction ISPs for discriminating against applications and require transparency in their network management practices. Critics also argue that US incidents where ISPs engaged in questionable network behavior have been so few that setting up tougher standards amounts to “regulation by anecdote.”
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