Blair Levin, with a swipe at Larry Lessig, introduces Michael Copps… Copps acknowledges that “Web site content is what makes the access so valuable in the first place…” providers with bottleneck control can create balkanized internet… innovation will depend on permission from the providers…
From the IRC backchannel: “Real briefly, the telecommunications industry is lobbying for the right to manage the traffic that flows over their networks as they see fit.”
David Isenberg compares network neutrality to elections… he adds “freedom to connect (network neutrality) to the other freedoms - freedom of speech and whatnot… Brad T. says “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the people to connect.”
Tim Wu’s presentation is hampered by inadequate Macintosh dongelization… when he gets started he brings us to the question: What is a network for? “The value of a network is what it makes possible.”
The telegraph… first network in history and first case of network discrimination… Western Union/Associated Press preferred rates provided that AP never used another network, and WU never allowed another news service to access with the same rates.
The monopoly and the AP relationship had a profound effect on the outcome of the 1976 presidential election… story told in the book “Creation of Media,” by Paul Starr.
Blocking and transparency are the key issues that network neutrality legislation must address according to Tim Wu. Tiering is the biggest issue… charging consumers for different levels of bandwidth is fair but no application side tiering should be permitted. Not everyone agrees that consumer tiering is the best way to proceed.
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