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lecture on the politics of net neutrality, to be delivered in Noriko Hara's graduate seminar at Indiana University, School of Library and Information Science, on November 12, 2013
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November 12, 2013
Origins of the Net Neutrality Debate
Coalition of Broadband Users and Innovators (CBUI) sent a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell in November 2002
It included the phrase “net neutrality” coined by Tim Wu in an article written in 2002 and published in 2003
CBUI called for “nondiscrimination safeguards” to guarantee net neutrality
What is Net Neutrality?
“Net neutrality simply means that all like Internet content must be treated alike and move at the same speed over the network. The owners of the Internet’s wires cannot discriminate. This is the simple but brilliant “end-to-end” design of the Internet that has made it such a powerful force for economic and social good.”
Lawrence Lessig and Robert W. McChesney, “No Tolls on the Internet,” Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
Ask a Ninja’s “What is Net Neutrality?” video
Eli Noam’s Possible Meanings No different quality grades for service No price discrimination among Internet providers No monopoly price charged to content and
application providers No discrimination against content providers who
compete with carrier’s own content No selectivity by the carriers over the content
that they transmit No blocking of the access of users to some
websites
Congress and the FCC Encourage Telephone and Cable to Compete
Telecom Act of 1996 FCC decisions to permit telephone
companies to buy cable networks and cable operators to compete in telephone markets
FCC wanted telcos and cable companies to compete in high-speed Internet and cable TV services via new fiber optic networks built without government subsidies
Top ISPs in the USA (2011)
Comcast Time Warner AT&T Cox Optimum Charter Verizon
Source: http://isp-review.toptenreviews.com/
Cable operators
Telephone companies
Top Global Web Sites (2011) Google Facebook YouTube Yahoo! Wikipedia Baidu Blogspot Twitter
Michael Powell’s Internet Freedoms, 2004
freedom to access content freedom to use applications freedom to attach personal devices freedom to obtain service plan
information
FCC Policy Statement 2005 consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice
consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement
consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network
consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers
Proponents’ Videos
Tim WuSave the InternetVint Cerf
Arguments of Proponents
End-to-end architecture of the Internet must be preserved
This means preventing discrimination by conduit companies against content and services that they do not control
Conduit companies will reserve lots of bandwidth for services like cable TV which will degrade Internet performance for everyone else
Vint Cerf
More Arguments of Proponents There is insufficient competition
between cable operators and telcos to guarantee non-discrimination
There is a potential for violations of freedom of speech in the absence of net neutrality guarantees
Gigi Sohn LarryLessig
TimBerners-Lee
Organizations that Supported Net Neutrality ACLU ALA Christian Coalition Gun Owners of America Consumers Union Google, Amazon, Yahoo! American Electronics Association
The Opponents’ Perspective on Net Neutrality NCTA anti-NN ad Fox News coverage Glenn Beck
David Farber
Arguments of Opponents
Net neutrality guarantees constitute unnecessary regulation
The threat of discrimination is overblown Cable and telephone companies need new
revenues to build out the network Need to have “intelligent networks” to
obtain “quality of service” Competition is sufficient to prevent
abuses
The Video Franchise Bill, 2006 Attempts by Democrats led by Ed
Markey in the House to add net neutrality amendments failed in committee and on the floor
Net neutrality amendment proposed by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) failed to pass in an 11-11 committee vote
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) voted against the amendment
Ted Stevens’ Tubes Statement “And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material. “
June 28, 2006
Series of Tubes Remix
Popular Reaction to Ted Stevens statement
Telecom Lobbying Money Spent in the First Half of 2006Category Specific Firms and
OrganizationAmount in $
millions
Telephone Interests
AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, and USTA
30.3
Cable Interests Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and NCTA
12.2
Internet Interests
Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, Amazon.com
8.8
Total 51.3
Wyden Saves the Day
Ron Wyden used his Senatorial privilege to place a hold on the Video Franchise bill because of the lack of net neutrality guarantees. Since Ted Stevens did not have the 60 votes needed to override Wyden’s hold, the bill was not put up for a vote on the Senate floor.
Barack Obama Supports Net Neutrality Speech on net neutrality at Google in 2007 Net neutrality becomes part of the official
Democratic party platform in 2008 Obama appoints Julius Genachowski as
head of the FCC in 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act of
2009 provides $7.2 billion for broadband infrastructure and mandates that the FCC prepare a National Broadband Plan
Genachowski Adds Two Items to FCC Policy Statement of 2005 “broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications”
• “providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management processes.”
Video of Genachowski
The National Broadband Plan FCC announced intention to guarantee net
neutrality in spite of Comcast ruling in 2009
Genachowski spoke of a “third way” between “heavy-handed prescriptive regulation” and the “light-touch approach” of the past
FCC would attempt to reclassify transmission component of broadband as a “telecommunication service”
Comcast Throttling of Bit-Torrent Traffic in 2007 Robb Topolski discovers delays in delivery of
Bit-Torrent files for his barber shop quartet Topolski publishes this on TorrentFreak blog EFF and AP verify independently Comcast eventually admits that it was “traffic
shaping” using an application called Sandvine that prevents “seeding”
The FCC told Comcast to stop doing this Comcast complied but appealed to courts
The Comcast Ruling of 2010 US Circuit Court of Appeals of DC ruled
on April 6, 2010, that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate ISPs under the Telecom Act of 1996 (therefore Comcast was not bound to obey FCC rules regarding traffic management)
Ruling was based on FCC decision to reclassify cable modems and DSL as information services
Verizon-Google Agreement In August 2010, Verizon and Google
announced a joint policy proposal The jist of it was:
Telecom companies agree to net neutrality on their wired networks
Internet firms agree that net neutrality rules will not apply to wireless networks
Both agree that reasonable traffic management is permissible on both wired and wireless networks
Verizon Challenge to FCC Open Internet Order (2013) Verizon argues in a suit before the US Court
of Appeals that the FCC overstepped its authority in reclassifying Internet service in its Open Internet Order and violating Verizon’s 1st and 5th amendment rights
In May 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that agencies have authority to regulate when legislation is ambiguous
Two of the Court of Appeals judges are opposed to treating all content equally but no ruling yet
New FCC Chair
New Chair, Ted Wheeler as of October 2013 Telecom lobbyist background Hired Gigi Sohn for policy advice
Conclusions Net neutrality was framed by Republicans as a
regulatory issue. Democratic framing was confusing. Republicans and their supporters carried the day until
June 2006 when the political tide began turn against them.
The 2006 and 2008 election results meant that Democrats and their allies would attempt to pass legislation guaranteeing net neutrality.
However, the Comcast ruling and strong Republican opposition to net neutrality made legislative action very unlikely. It is still not clear whether the FCC strategy to reclassify broadband transmission will work.