Archive for the ‘Internet policy’ Category

OK Go Singer’s Brilliant on Net Neutrality

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

I'm stoked by Damian Kulash's New York Times opinion calling for mandated network neutrality. It's a far more accessible, engaging piece than almost anything written on the subject, and he makes a compelling case. Kudos to him. P.S. On a personal note, it's been a metric year since I blogged, and ...

FCC Hearing: Comcast Hired Seat Warmers

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

At yesterday's FCC hearing into Comcast's practice of blocking BitTorrent traffic in Cambridge, Comcast hired several dozen seat warmers to reduce the number of critics who could get into the hearing. The hearing was held at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. When Catherine Bracy, the Center's administrative manager, opened ...

Google Horror Story: Deleted Online Identities

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Danah boyd has a great post examining the dangers of losing our online identities at the whims of corporate decisionmakers. If we get our GMail/FaceBook/Yahoo! account hijacked, what can we do when the company deletes it and all our related data? If we're connected, that's one thing, but what about those ...

Comcast to FCC: Why Regulate? We Have the Blogosphere

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

In a filing with the FCC (pdf), Comcast claims that, thanks to market competition and blogging watchdogs, there is no need for regulatory intervention to protect net neutrality. The company's recent discrimination against peer-to-peer traffic is the cause of the hearing. Last August, Comcast denied the charges (which were first documented ...

Net neutrality bill reborn

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Today, Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS) introduced HR 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (pdf). For more, see SaveTheInternet.com or CNet.

Comcast’s New ToS: Company Admits to Tampering with P2P Traffic

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

In Comcast's new Terms of Service, the company explicitly admits that it degrades peer-to-peer traffic as a means of reducing their network load. The company also admits that they will kick off end users who use (what they determine to be) too much bandwidth: The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential ...

Comments to FCC Blast Comcast

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

ArsTechnica has an excellent summary of the eloquent, biting critiques of Comcast being aired in an FCC proceeding. End users with an exceptional understanding of the underlying technology provide pretty damning evidence that the broadband service provider is deliberately degrading certain kinds of internet traffic.

More 700 MHz Auction Analysis

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Two quick links (both on Wetmachine) here on the FCC's 700 MHz spectrum auction. First, Harold Feld has another great bit of analysis on why Google is bidding to win, though it's not nearly as in-depth as his Great Google Prophecy last month. Second, Greg Rose has an outstanding critique of the ...

First Round of 700 MHz Spectrum Auction Totals $2.4b

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

We have a long way to go, but the first round of the FCC's 700 MHz spectrum auction fetched bids totaling $2.4 billion. None of the prices have yet reached the FCC's reserves, and the auction's close is still many weeks away.

Supercapitalism Really Is Super

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

Robert Reich's latest book, Supercapitalism, is a fantastic analysis of the current relationship between corporations, citizens, and politics. I put Supercapitalism on my wish list after Prof. Lawrence Lessig's glowing recommendation. While I make no pretense of being such a gifted writer as either of these scholars, here I attempt to ...