April 2008

A Bill of Rights to enshrine Net Neutrality?

by on April 23, 2008 · 3 comments

After changing its mind about throttling Bittorrent traffic last month, Comcast has pulled a 180° on network neutrality. Last week, Comcast announced plans to publish a consumers’ “bill of rights and responsibilities,” detailing what subscribers should expect from their ISP and laying out network management best practices.

Naturally, the “Save the Internet” crowd isn’t satisfied with Comcast’s declaration. Being protocol-agnostic wasn’t enough for them, and neither is a consumer bill of rights. Customers will only be safe from evil ISPs, they say, with aggressive neutrality mandates like Rep. Markey’s proposed legislation.

On one hand, Comcast’s declaration is good news for Bittorrent users, and illustrates the responsiveness of market forces. And as a Comcast subscriber, I’m all for non-discriminatory networks. (Though I seed torrents quite rarely, it’s nice to know the option exists.)

But declaring a consumer “Bill of Rights” is a risky approach. Comcast is ceding key ground to interventionists by implicitly admitting that consumers have some inherent right to unfiltered, unmanaged networks. They don’t—despite what lawmakers like Byron Dorgan have suggested.

Essentially, Comcast is saying “If we have to be neutral, then so should all the other guys. Otherwise, they’re violating consumer rights.”

Yet some ISPs are making just the opposite argument, identifying the benefits of curbing bandwidth-intensive applications.  In comments filed last week, Bell Canada contended that throttling is in the public interest, explaining that 95% of subscribers suffer on account of file sharing. GigaOM posted a story yesterday that lends further credence to claims that peer-to-peer traffic is a major culprit of network congestion.

Perhaps we shall see a competing bill of rights—one holding that customers have the right to affordable broadband access free from file sharing-induced slowdowns.

As bandwidth demand continues to grow, ISPs must make tough choices. Between price increases, bandwidth caps, and protocol discrimination, it is far from clear what’s best for the average user. If AT&T’s prediction is correct that in three years time, 20 typical households will consume as much bandwidth as the entire Internet does today, then carriers will need to invest billions upgrading both the backbone and last-mile. Discouraging investment through regulation poses a far greater threat to the Internet’s future than hypothetical neutrality violations.

If neutrality truly is as virtuous as its proponents suggest (and I suspect it is) then it will ultimately triumph on its own merits, without the need for government intervention. Still, exclusionary, proprietary networks may yet play an invaluable role in propelling connectivity, despite closed systems’ shortcomings.  Who knows what will work out best in the long run? Market experimentation is the only way to find out.

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Localism is the new Fairness Doctrine

by on April 23, 2008 · 28 comments

Just as pink was the new black and The Backstreet Boys were the new New Kids on the Block, the FCC is now turning “Localism” into the new Fairness Doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine mandated that controversial issues of public importance be presented in a manner deemed by the FCC to be honest, equitable, and balanced. Though Localism isn’t concerned with political speech, both sets of rules interfere with the editorial process, both control and compel speech, and neither passes Constitutional muster.

The FCC has reasons to believe that Localism is a concern, but those reasons lack the weightiness and depth of well-conducted policy research needed for rule making. Commisioner Copps has stated that:

We have witnessed the number of statehouse and city hall reporters declining decade after decade, despite an explosion in state and local lobbying. The number of channels have indeed multiplied, but there is far less local programming and reporting being produced.

Yet only a few short years ago former FCC Chairman Michael Powell made this statement on the issue of localism:

Local newscasts have become the staple of any successful local broadcast tele

vision station, demonstrating that serving the needs and wants of your local community does not just fulfill their public obligations, but also simply make good business sense.

Powell also stated in 2004 that Americans today “have access to more local content than at any time in our nation’s history.” But still, commissioners like Michael Copps don’t approve of how that local news is produced or what it contains.

But events of national and international importance do not occur in accordance with regulators’ preconceived notions of how much coverage ought to be allotted to them. Local news outlets should not be wary of reporting on wars overseas, famine in the developing world, or other non-local issues they deem important for fear of neglecting to comply with bureaucratic dictates.

The Fairness Doctrine had the arguably worse effect of making many broadcasters shy away from political coverage altogether, for fear that–try as they may–their coverage would be considered “unbalanced.” Twenty years after instituting this misguided rule, the FCC finally acknowledged this fact in the wake of a 1985 Supreme Court decision (FCC v. League of Women Voters, 468 U.S. 364) which found that the rule was “chilling speech.”

The result was an explosion in talk radio content beginning most famously with conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh, but also creating new space for left-liberal voices like Thom Hartmann and Al Franken.

Where the Fairness Doctrine chilled all speech, Localism will compel speech of which FCC Commissioners like Copps approve. In a world of limited broadcast hours, compelling one sort of speech means sacrificing speech of another, effectively censoring speech.

Should we be content to let the FCC tell us what we have to say when we’d never stand for it telling us what we can’t say? Oh wait, I suppose we do let it tell us what we can’t say.

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Internet Futurama: Hollywood Writers, Little Presidents, and Neutrality Regulation

by on April 23, 2008 · 8 comments

Justine Bateman may have grabbed the headlines, but she wasn’t the only witness from Hollywood at yesterday’s Senate hearing on neutrality regulation.  Nor did she have the most interesting resume.  That honor goes to Patric Verrone, the president of the Writer’s Guild of America, west, whose own writing credits include work for everything from The Simpson’s and Futurama to Rugrats and the Muppets.   As Verrone himself put it, “I am the only panelist to have written a film about a robot poker tournament in space Vegas in the year 3009 so I think my expertise in the area is unquestionable.”

Strangely enough, I first came into contact with Verrone not from his WGA work, or even from 31st century poker tournaments, but from Ebay, where he sells miniature figures of U.S. presidents and other notable individuals.   My six-year old son Peter and I have become avid collectors of the figurines. 

 

Verrone is no stranger to market power – being the only known vendor of the pricey presidents.  (Although I suspect the demand side is rather thin as well). 

Outside of the tiny figurine world, Verrone is best known for leading Hollywood writers through a 100-day strike, which finally ended in February of this year.  Oddly, however, Verrone, in his testimony, uses that experience as evidence of the need for Internet regulation.  

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Students, Cyber-Bullying, & Online Free Speech

by on April 23, 2008 · 13 comments

Yesterday, I was a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, which airs on WAMU 88.5 radio (Washington, DC’s NPR affiliate), and had the chance to take part in an excellent discussion about the ins-and-outs of student online speech. Specifically, we discussed the sticky issues surrounding online privacy, anonymity, defamation, cyber-bullying, and so on.

The entire show can be heard on Kojo’s site. The other guests were John Morris of the Center for Democracy and Technology, Parry Aftab, the Executive Director of WiredSafety.org, and Reg Weaver, the President of the National Education Association. We attempted to provide parents and educators with some helpful advice about how to deal with these issues when they pop up. We also got into the controversies raised by the anonymous comments left on sites like JuicyCampus.com and RateMyTeachers.com.

[Incidentally, this show was part of Kojo’s excellent ongoing “Tech Tuesday” series. Each Tuesday he dedicates his show to “putting technology in context and assessing its relevance in your life.” It’s a great program. In encourage you to listen.]

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NCSL Calls for Repeal of REAL ID

by on April 23, 2008 · 7 comments

The National Conference of State Legislatures wants the REAL ID Act gone. It supports S. 717, the Identification Security Enhancement Act of 2007, which would repeal the REAL ID Act and reinstitute a negotiated rulemaking process on identity security that was established in the 9/11-Commission-inspired Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.

It’s not a foregone conclusion that an organization like this would reject a behemoth of a project like building a national ID and surveillance system. The NCSL isn’t a small-government organization, and it could just as well have lobbied for billions of dollars in funding.

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Bruce Everiss on video game piracy

by on April 23, 2008 · 8 comments

Bruce Everiss, a UK-based video game industry veteran, and author of the blog Bruce on Games, has penned a comprehensive essay on video game piracy through the years. I recommend you read the entire piece, but here’s the take away:

And the game industry continues to grow and prosper, despite the piracy. This is because the proliferation of platforms allows publishers to more easily abandon platforms that are pirated to the point of being uneconomic. Instead they concentrate on platforms where there are windows of opportunity to run a viable business. Either because the anti piracy technology is on top or because there is a sufficient number of honest customers to get a return, even sometimes with a heavily pirated platform. Games with an online element can often be made very pirate proof which has been a major incentive for developers to go down this route.

So for 25 years or so game players have been stealing games in truly massive numbers with zero chance of being caught and punished for their crime. Very often far more copies of a game title have been pirated than have been bought. This self evidently causes harm to the games industry, ultimately leading to less money being invested in games for the pirated platform. So, the game player suffers for his theft by having less games and lower quality games. All pretty obvious to anyone but the pirates who make all sorts of feeble excuses to justify their stealing.

[My own views on video game piracy can be found here and here.]

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Britannica Blog’s excellent “Newspapers & the Net” forum

by on April 22, 2008 · 9 comments

The Britannica Blog has been running an absolutely terrific series of essays on “Newspapers & the Net,” which is examining the questions: “Are newspapers dead? Should we care?” The series kicks off with essays from three of my absolute favorite bloggers: Nick Carr, Clay Shirky and Jay Rosen, who is the author of the amazing blog, PressThink. I highly recommend that you read all the installments, however. Here’s the rundown of participants and essays in the series thus far:
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ALF 5 in 60 seconds

by on April 22, 2008 · 8 comments

A bunch of drunks obsessing over Justine Bateman.

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Video games, pro wrestling, and the politics of hypocrisy

by on April 22, 2008 · 9 comments

For those of you who aren’t avid WWE wrestling watchers, the 3 leading presidential candidates all offered up videos for the professional wrestling crowd recently. McCain’s freakish one is right below and Hillary and Obama’s are down below the fold. They all cracked a bunch of jokes and used what were obviously scripted remarks that integrate in the requisite number of wresting analogies. And they all talked all sort of stupid smack, just like pro wrestlers do. [It reminded me of former candidate Mike Huckabee’s bizarre cultural politics].


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Averages Are Meaningless in an Expanding Market

by on April 22, 2008 · 7 comments

I want to second Adam’s great post on the silly alarmism over the state of the media. I never watch network TV, so I don’t have an opinion on whether it’s become a cultural wasteland, but to the extent that that’s true, it’s primarily because there are so many alternative entertainment sources (basic and premium cable, DVDs, the Internet, indy movie theaters) competing for more discerning viewers. There’s a lot more of everything—great entertainment and drivel alike—being produced. And anyone who cares is free to seek out great shows like The Wire rather than watching the latest formulaic crap on NBC.

This, indeed, mirrors the broader critique that’s commonly leveled at the Internet (ironically, it’s often made by defenders of traditional mass media) that most of what’s on the Internet—be it blogs, YouTube videos, amateur poetry, or whatever—is crap. This is true. But it’s also totally irrelevant, because nobody spends their time consuming the median content online. Rather, they have a variety of increasingly sophisticated filters at their exposure that allow them to find the best stuff and ignore the rest. What we ought to care about isn’t the quality of the average content that’s available, but the quality of the average content that’s actually consumed, as judged by the person consuming it. It’s almost a tautology that more options means people will be able to find more stuff they’ll like.

By the same token, there’s no reason to care especially about the quality of the average network TV show when people are abandoning network TV in droves in favor of higher-quality content available elsewhere. What matters is whether there’s enough high-quality stuff for people to watch, and on that score things have never been better.

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