Tag: Internet Protocol

Raise your hand if you like the Internet. Now, raise your hand if you like freedom. And once more for democracy. Okay, put your hands down – I can’t actually see you. If you raised your hand (and I suspect a lot of you did, at least mentally) then I urge you to check out what’s going on for the Third Annual OneWebDay on Monday, September 22, 2008. OneWebDay is a day focused on protecting the Internet, much like Earth Day is a day focused on protecting the Earth. And each year, OneWebDay picks a key Internet value to focus on. This year’s value is online participation in democracy. And what better topic for an election year than that?

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.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been quick to blame problems with service quality on so-called “bandwidth hogs.” According to AT&T, the top 5% of their Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) subscribers use 46% of the consumed bandwidth, and the top 1% of subscribers use 21%. But it is unclear what these figures mean, and if congestion problems could even be caused by those who use the network the most. These figures would seem to be describing the bandwidth consumption totals at the end of some designated time period (day, week, month). If this is the case, then 5% of subscribers using 46% of bandwidth consumed is not necessarily cause for alarm.

Excessive bandwidth usage is only a problem when it degrades the quality of service for other users of the network.

For months, Comcast spokespeople have been deny, deny, denying that the FCC has the power to do anything about Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent traffic. Now, in papers filed as part of a class action lawsuit against Comcast, Comcast has gone the opposite direction, asserting that because “these issues are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the FCC, and because the FCC is actively investigating them,” the judge should put the suit on hold until the FCC renders a decision. The court has agreed, staying the case until the FCC acts.

For the past couple of days, I’ve been in South Korea, attending the OECD’s Ministerial on the Future of the Internet Economy. Rather than try to give a blow-by-blow account, I’ve tried to package some of my thoughts in a series of posts. Here’s one:

The OECD Ministerial has ended with the signing of the Seoul Declaration, a document signed by the member nations of the OECD, as well as the European Community and observer countries Chile, Egypt, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Senegal and Slovenia. The Declaration sets out the international organization’s general policies for ensuring the future of the Internet Economy—including policies they believe will encourage creativity, support convergence, and promote confidence online.

For the past couple of days, I’ve been in South Korea, attending the OECD’s Ministerial on the Future of the Internet Economy. Rather than try to give a blow-by-blow account, I’ve tried to package some of my thoughts in a series of posts. Here’s one:

Video sharing sites hit mainstream a long time ago—by the time a technology is feted as part of a presidential debate, it's no longer got that same early-adopter cachet. That doesn't keep it from being useful, though.

Right now, for instance, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is asking for your input on a key meeting this month.

If you haven’t heard yet, a beta of Adobe’s Flash Player Version 10 is available for download. It offers a host of new features, but one has implications that blow the others out of the water: built-in peer-to-peer. That’s right, all the tools necessary to build a p2p client will be built into the Flash plug-in.

I just got back from a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on the future of the Internet. Much was said on both sides of the panelist table, so I’ll just take a moment to hit some highlights: competition and innovation, media consolidation and content, and FCC authority. One disclaimer: this summary represents (of course) how I interpreted the statements at the hearing. Where I can, I’ve included timestamps into the video; if you want more detail, watch the hearing direct from the Senate’s web site. Also, check out our press release.

We’re now accepting nominations for our annual IP3 Awards. Each year, Public Knowledge singles out three people who have advanced the public interest in one or more of the “three IPs”: Intellectual Property, Internet Protocol, and Information Policy.

As technology advances, the roles of users, content creators, and service providers expand and blur. This year, more than ever, the areas have overlapped in debates around patents, copyright, net neutrality on the Internet and on other networks, the use of spectrum, and many others. As new questions arise at the intersection of law and technology, certain individuals come forward to advance to public interest in each of the three types of “IP”.

As always, we need your help in choosing this year’s winners. So please send your nominations to IP3nominees@publicknowledge.org, or post your picks in the comments below.