Transcript Current State of Network Neutrality- United States

Arguments Against NN - Political
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Difficulty of designing effective laws
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Poor legislation may actually cause more harm
than good
May interfere with existing network infrastructure
Illegal Activity
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Legal traffic cannot be separated from illegal
traffic
Arguments Against NN - Economic
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No ISP control of connection usage
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Comcast P2P case
Bandwidth caps of limited effectiveness
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May result in ISP simply slowing traffic down for
everyone
Competitors take advantage of infrastructure
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Google Voice vs. iPhone
Telecoms vs. Internet services
Current State of Network Neutrality –
United States
• FCC has ruled in favor of net neutrality
– Four principles
• Consumers entitled to access of lawful content
• Consumers entitled to use applications and services of
their choice
• Consumers entitled to connect peripheral devices that
do not harm the network
• Consumers entitled to competition among providers
• President Obama expressed support – “keep
the Internet as it should be - open and free.”
Current State of Network Neutrality –
United States
• Comcast and bandwidth limits
• Google Voice
– Elects not to connect calls to certain providers
• Tie-in with copyright issues
– Google Books
– P2P software and piracy
• Physical challenges
– Signals carried across multiple providers’
infrastructure
Sources
• Jordan, S. (2009). Implications of internet architecture on
net neutrality. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology,
9(2).
• Obama, B. (2009, May). Remarks by the President on
Securing Our Nation’s Cyber Infrastructure. Speech
presented at the White House, Washington, D.C.
• Comcast, Inc. Announcement Regarding an Amendment to
Our Acceptable Use Policy.
<http://www.comcast.net/terms/network/amendment/>
• Hansell, S. (2009, September 25). AT&T says Google Voice
violates net neutrality principles. New York Times.
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/att-saysgoogle-voice-violates-net-neutrality-principles/>
Sources
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Liberty. Liberating Cyberspace Civil Liberties,
Human Rights & the Internet. New York: Pluto,
1999. Print.
Tambini, Damian, Danilo Leonardi, and Chris
Marsden. Codifying Cyberspace. Trowbridge,
Whitshire: The Cromwell Press, 2008.
Thierer, Adam, and Clyde W. Crews, eds. Who
rules the net? Internet governance and
jurisdiction. Washington, D.C: Cato Institute,
2003. Print.