Feb
14
Copyright: Trojan horse to net neutrality?
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:34 am under Copyright, Internet.
Craig Aaron sets the scene well:
[I]n The Matrix… Morpheus… offers Neo… a fateful choice.
He holds out two pills. Take the blue pill, he says, and you go back to a life of clock-punching drudgery where your every move is monitored. Take the red one, and you get spaceships, kung-fu and a leather-clad Carrie-Anne Moss.
Take away the martial arts, and Morpheus could just as well be describing the monumental choice Americans are facing today over the future of the internet. Only it’s not science fiction…
Comcast was recently caught blocking users of file-sharing services, cutting off access to legal content - including a download of the King James Bible. Their “network management” is really just an attempt to undercut potential competitors in the video business, while avoiding sorely needed network upgrades… AT&T plans to… use copyright… as a Trojan horse to inspect everything… and control how audio and video are distributed on the web.
On Wednesday,
Comcast admitted to delaying P2P traffic during peak hours, but denied blocking P2P applications completely… Nonetheless, the FCC agreed to open an investigation into the accusations after several interest groups filed a petition with the commission… The House weighed in on the issue Tuesday with a bill from Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey that calls on the FCC to open a proceeding on broadband services and consumer rights… [With] the bill’s enactment, the commission would be required to start investigating whether ISPs: are… “unreasonably interfering” with a consumers’ ability to send messages or access Internet services.
Meanwhile, another big player finds that the threat of jail time is a good scare tactic for fostering copyright respect.