[636] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] European ISPs Threaten to Join "Content Owners" to
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Sat Apr 10 00:33:23 2010
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 21:06:50 -0700
To: privacy-list@vortex.com
Message-ID: <20100410040650.GA20658@vortex.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Disposition: inline
From: privacy@vortex.com
Reply-To: PRIVACY Forum Digest mailing list <privacy@vortex.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Errors-To: privacy-bounces+privacy-forum=mit.edu@vortex.com
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
European ISPs Threaten to Join "Content Owners" to Gang-Up on Google
( http://www.nnsquad.org/archives/nnsquad/msg03297.html )
It appears that raw envy is finally enticing some giant ISPs -- at least
in Europe for now -- into becoming very explicit about their feelings
toward Google.
As noted in:
http://bit.ly/bXWkFU (Financial Times)
(hey, I didn't choose those last two letters, don't blame me!)
Telefonica, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are now demanding that
Google "stop using their networks for free" (golly, where have we
heard that canard before?) and are suggesting that ISPs should team up
with Content Companies whom the ISPs claim are similarly "oppressed."
Stuff and nonsense. The ISPs are already being paid to carry the data
that their subscribers want -- by those very subscribers! And CDNs
(Content Distribution Networks) such as Google is deploying for
YouTube are specifically designed to ameliorate any existing issues
associated with peering or related costs.
What we're seeing on the part of these ISPs is nothing more nor less
than the Big Telecom version of "sour grapes." They're concerned
that they'll be relegated to the role of "dumb pipes" it seems?
Where does it say that providing Internet access services requires
more than "dumb pipes" reliably and reasonably managed?
Their threatened behavior is a textbook example of why Network
Neutrality rules are so important. And for students of history,
there's a clear sense of deja vu, since we've seen very much the same
behavior by the titans of transportation access in the past, all the
way back to the dawn of the industrial age (and arguably much
earlier).
The loud protestations of these ISPs -- and of Murdoch and his kin
with their feet firmly planted in the last century -- should be
appreciated for helping make very obvious how desperately they wish to
warp the open Internet into a closed universe of walled content, where
Internet users could be shaken down for every conceivable form of
revenue stream to maintain their Internet access.
He who controls the roads controls the Empire.
True in Ancient Rome. Still true today.
"Per aspera ad astra."
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
_______________________________________________
privacy mailing list
http://lists.vortex.com/mailman/listinfo/privacy
