Tag Archives: net neutrality

FCC Votes on Regs, Thursday Feb. 26

The FCC is scheduled to vote on regulations for the internet this coming Thursday, and it’s expected that they will do the right thing and declare that Title II authority of the Telecommunications Act applies to internet services. To make sure the public and FCC commissioners know that many people care deeply about this, a large group of organizations such as Daily Kos, the Nation Magazine, Greenpeace, Reddit, and Credo Action  have organized a campaign to present messages via Jumbotron outside the FCC offices on Thursday.

For your amusement, here’s my submission.

Cartoon with caption: We Need Title II Because- On the INternet, Some People Really Don't Give a Rat's Ass That You're a Dog.

Net Neutrality- What’s the Problem?

Open and Competitive Markets, . . Yeah, Sure.

ISPmarketplace_F05b_700x

No need for a long essay, since there shouldn’t be any problem at all- anyone who hasn’t spent thirty years in a cave understands that the internet is an essential utility on the order of electricity and water, and not some optional service like pet grooming or astrology reading.  Yet in Washington, D.C., where all too often it’s impossible to reach agreement that water is wet, the FCC under chairman Thomas Wheeler is still bent on regulating the internet as an “information service,” rather than a “telecommunication service.”  This makes about as much sense as attempting to regulate nuclear reactors as if they were household appliances, using product safety laws to craft the regulations needed to keep stuff from melting down and going BOOM.  My preference, though, would be for the FCC to stop screwing around, and correct its 2002 ruling before any more damage is done.

Oh, that’s right, we’re talking about Washington; what was I thinking?  Anyhow, here’s my reading list for getting deeper into the weeds.

 

John Nichols.  Net Neutrality Will Be Saved Only If Citizens Raise an Outcry. The Nation.  April 24, 2014

Lee Fang. Former Comcast and Verizon Attorneys Now Manage the FCC and Are About to Kill the Internet. VICE.  April 25 2014

Marvin Ammori. The FCC’s New Net Neutrality Proposal Is Even Worse Than You Think.  SLATE.  April 24, 2014

Mike Masnick. How The FCC Plans Neuter The Net, Even As The FCC Insists Everyone’s Got It All Wrong.  Techdirt.  April 25th 2014

April Glaser and Corynne McSherry. FCC’s New Rules Could Threaten Net Neutrality.  Electronic Frontier Foundation.  April 24, 2014

Bartees Cox Jr. FCC To Allow Commercial Discrimination on the Internet. PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.  April 23, 2014

Editorial Board. Creating a Two-Speed Internet. New York Times. APRIL 24, 2014

 

Now for Something Completely Different-

 

If you’re in a short-attention-span kinda mood, here’s a video that really nails the situation with our telecoms and the coming COMCAST / Time Warner merger- (contains explicit and entirely suitable language.)

And just in case you aren’t already supersaturated with bad news about telecoms and net neutrality, here are a few additional articles and resources:

Brendan Fischer.  “How ALEC Helps Big Telecom Change State Laws for Corporate Gain” Center for Media and Democracy. February 13, 2014

Michael J. Copps. “From the desk of a former FCC Commissioner”  Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet.  Columbia Journalism Review.February 13, 2014

John Light.  “What’s the Right Path Forward on Net Neutrality?” Moyers & Company. February 4, 2014

 

 

 

 

Net Neutrality and Creators

My sense is that when artists think about or discuss their economic and political interests, copyright law is often the dancing elephant in the center ring that unfortunately draws too much attention from other issues that creators should also be worried about.  One very important issue is net neutrality, which has been in the news recently.

On September 9 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit heard arguments from Verizon, which is challenging FCC rules designed to keep the internet open and neutral.  If net neutrality hasn’t been on your radar, and you don’t know anything about common carrier rules, or how they affect the internet, I would recommend you catch up by reading this article by Timothy Lee in the Washington Post (Sept. 10, 2013).  Net Neutrality is on Trial in Washington.  Here’s What You Need to Know.  (See also the other resources listed below).

Net neutrality matters to all creators, if you consider what the marketplace for artistic services might look like if Verizon, AT&T, Time-Warner, and COMCAST win their fight to lock up internet access and content.  Increased costs just for access, plus arbitrary data caps with associated high fees and penalties, will mean fewer consumers buying less content; suppression of competitors will reduce the need for providing quality service and programming; fewer buyers of creative works will mean that the big players will have increased leverage over what they pay you for your work.  And that’s just looking at a loss of net neutrality from a purely business and financial bottom-line viewpoint; from an ordinary citizen’s vantage, allowing a handful of corporations to monopolize the internet and choose what content is favored, or even available, would be an unthinkable assault on the basic rights of all Americans.

It’s worth mentioning here that the Graphic Artists Guild, as an associate member of the Copyright Alliance, is actually in league against the interests of creators.  While the Alliance regularly sends out its clowns to keep everyone’s attention focused on the copyright elephant, its lobbyists are busy at their real day jobs representing Nickles Group LLC clients COMCAST and AT&T, not to mention a slew of other corporate interests that are very unfriendly to the creative community.

Here are a number of other articles and resources for catching up on the issue of net neutrality, and what the telecoms are up to:

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Eli Clifton. The Telecom Astroturf Lobby. The American Independent. Sept. 11, 2013.

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Michael J. Copps. The New Telecom Oligarchs. The Nation, April 3, 2013.

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Michael Weinberg. If You Are Streaming Video, You Can’t Cap Your Rivals (Time Warner Cable Edition). PublicKnowledge.org, August 28, 2013

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Timothy Karr.  Verizon’s Plan to Break the Internet.  Common Dreams, Sept. 21, 2013.

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Moyers & Company.  Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair.  Video interview, Feb. 8, 2013.

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