Issue: Network Neutrality

Public Knowledge Shines a Light on Deep Packet Inspection

Mehan Jayasuriya — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:16:50 -0400

Public Knowledge President and Co-Founder Gigi Sohn testified in front of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation this morning, at a hearing entitled "Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy". Alongside Gigi, the hearing also featured testimony from representatives for AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. Gigi spent the majority of her time focusing on Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), a technology that--as you may know--is receiving a great deal of Congressional scrutiny as of late.

Public Knowledge Warns of ‘Grave Dangers’ of Deep Packet Inspection

Art Brodsky — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:16:41 -0400

For Immediate Release: September 25, 2008

Public Knowledge President and Co-Founder Gigi B. Sohn today warned the Senate Commerce Committee of the privacy intrusion that occurs when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) inspect detailed customer information using a technique called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). In testimony to the Committee, Sohn told the Committee: “It should be clear that the very nature of DPI technology raises grave privacy concerns.” She described DPI as: “To put it simply, Deep Packet Inspection is the Internet equivalent of the postal service reading your mail.

Written Testimony: Hearing on Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy

Webmaster — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

This testimony is also available in PDF format.

Testimony of Gigi B. Sohn
President, Public Knowledge

Before the
U.S. Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

September 25, 2008

Chairman Inouye, Ranking Member Hutchison and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify about broadband providers and consumer privacy. I’d like to focus today on the growing use of the collection of technologies known as “Deep Packet Inspection,” or DPI, which has immense implications for the privacy rights of the American public. Over the past several months, Public Knowledge, in partnership with Free Press, has been analyzing these technologies and their impact on privacy and an open Internet. In June, our organizations published a white paper entitled NebuAd and Partner ISPs: Wiretapping, Forgery and Browser Hijacking, which examined the technical and policy aspects of DPI. I applaud the Committee for its continued scrutiny of the use of these technologies.

Oral Testimony: Hearing on Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy

Webmaster — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

This testimony is also available in PDF format.

Oral Statement of Gigi B. Sohn
President, Public Knowledge

Before the
U.S. Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

September 25, 2008

Chairman Inouye, Ranking Member Hutchison and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today. I’d like to focus on the growing use of technologies known as “Deep Packet Inspection,” or DPI, for short. The use of DPI technology has serious implications for the privacy rights of the American public. Public Knowledge, in partnership with Free Press, has been analyzing these technologies and their impact on both privacy and an open Internet. In June, our organizations published a white paper entitled “NebuAd and Partner ISPs: Wiretapping, Forgery and Browser Hijacking,” which examined the technical and policy aspects of DPI. I applaud the Committee for its scrutiny of the use of these technologies.

Public Knowledge Welcomes New Front Group As Attack On Internet

Art Brodsky — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:28:06 -0400

For Immediate Release: September 24, 2008

The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

“This latest in a string of big-money front groups is nothing more than the most concentrated attack on the free and open Internet we have seen to date. Combining the power and influence of AT&T and the entertainment industry means only that both are going to wage an all-out war for the right to filter every bit of data anyone sends across the Internet. We are pleased to see that Verizon continues to resist the incessant and misguided pressure from the entertainment industry.

The Wall Street Lesson For Net Neutrality

Art Brodsky — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:36:21 -0400

As the institutions of Wall Street continue to crumble one after another, there’s a lesson to be learned for those of us who want to make sure the Internet remains as free and open in the future as it has been in the past.

The collapse of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG and the rest didn’t happen overnight. The situation has been brewing for years. The subprime mortgage crisis may have precipitated the immediate tragedy, but underpinning the whole mess is a philosophy about business and government. That way of thinking posits that deregulation is the best path for the economy, and that government is best when it’s out of the way to let the private sector do what it wants. That’s the thinking that led to the collapse of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s, and was revived ten years later to apply more broadly to the financial industry.

AT&T TOS Update Shows Network Management's True Colors (UPDATED)

Mehan Jayasuriya — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:04:43 -0400

I've said it before and I'll say it again: P2P filesharing might be the bogeyman du jour but streaming video is both the real bandwidth hog and the real target of the ISPs' bandwidth-throttling initiatives. In the wake of the FCC's landmark order reprimanding Comcast for its BitTorrent blockade, ISPs have been scrambling to figure out how to protect themselves from the coming 'exaflood,' without running afoul of the FCC. Comcast, for example, has rolled out 250GB bandwidth caps, in order to curb "excessive use" of the company's "unlimited" broadband Internet services. Given that Comcast is a provider of broadcast, on-demand and even streaming online video and given the fact that streaming video has been shown to account for some 35 percent of all traffic during peak times, the anticompetitive implications here should be fairly obvious. What's that you say, they're not quite obvious enough? Well, worry not friend, AT&T has gone ahead and made things even more clear.

Public Knowledge Statement on Comcast Appeal of FCC Decision

Art Brodsky — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:01:54 -0400

For Immediate Release: September 4, 2008

Comcast today appealed to the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit the Federal Communications Commission’s Aug. 20 order finding Comcast violated the Commission’s Open Internet principles. The following is the statement of Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

“We expected Comcast would appeal the Commission’s order. The company opposed it every step of the way, even as they failed to disclose their throttling of Internet traffic. We believe the Commission will prevail and the rights of Internet users will be protected.”

GOP Should Look on eBay for Internet Policy

Art Brodsky — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:23:11 -0400

Former eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman’s speech to the Republican National Convention on Wed. night (Sept. 3) was notable for what it didn’t say. Whitman is a giant in her field. She was the head of one of the largest, most successful, most culture-changing companies to emerge since the modern Internet came into existence.

She made lots of money for eBay and from eBay. That was why her speech was so disappointing. The word, “Internet” didn’t appear once. Neither did “innovation” or “technology.” She talked about the economy and lowering taxes and creating jobs and took some political shots at the Democratic ticket. But there was not one word for the medium that vaulted her and her company into American business history, the medium that is the greatest vehicle for innovation and consumer empowerment we have.

It wasn’t always this way.

Higher Ed Needs an IT Policy Task Force

Gigi Sohn — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:11:58 -0400

For the second straight year, I addressed the EDUCAUSE/Cornell Institute for Computer Policy and Law, held at Cornell’s beautiful campus. The Institute gathers 50+ higher education information technology (IT) professionals – usually campus CTOs, librarians and legal counsels, and teaches them the substantive particulars of IT policy issues and advises them how to be strong advocates.