BGSU’s February TechTrends: Why Should We Care About Net Neutrality
On Wednesday, aside from getting sick, I attended February’s TechTrend at BGSU. The talk was given by Alex Cutris, Director of Policy and New Media for Public Knowledge, and was called “Why Should We Care About Net Neutrality”. Overall, it was a good presentation about net neutrality for those that may not have known anything about the issue, as many good, key points were made.
March’s TechTrends is going to be on March 22, 2007 starting at 2:30 PM, and will be called Technology Trends and Web 2.0. The first 250 attendees will get a copy of Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.
Since I had a bout of food poisoning since I saw the presentation, I’m just going to post what the BGSU TechTrends page has. (In a couple weeks, that page may not have this information, as it will have moved to a new location.)
Net Neutrality
Network neutrality is a concept about keeping the free flow of Internet content, barring phone and cable companies from erecting tiered pricing that favors some Web traffic or sites over others. To ensure fair and equal access to the Internet by service providers from discriminatory pricing and preferences set by Internet service providers, citizen groups and politicians introduced bills for “Net Neutrality”. On Jan. 9, Senators Byron Dorgan (D.-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), reintroduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would keep Internet service providers from prioritizing the traffic to some Web sites over others. An earlier version of the bill faltered in a Senate committee in June after receiving an 11-11 tie vote that split roughly along party lines, with Republicans largely opposing the measure.
On one side are tech companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Intel, Microsoft – that specialize in Web-related content and technology, pushing for rules that they say would keep the Internet free from discriminatory pricing. On the other are the phone and cable companies that run the networks, shuttling that information from place to place. They oppose regulation of the Internet.
For a Network Neutrality Overview, please reference: www.publicknowledge.org/issues/network-neutrality
Public Knowledge (PK)
Public Knowldge is one of the most prominent organizations in promoting net neutrality. The policy issues that PK is currently working on in telecommunications inlcude net neutrality, repurposing of spectrum “white-spaces” for licensed and unlicensed use, and increased broadband deployment. PK intends to promote a positive copyright agenda in the 100th Congress, focusing on at least two key issues: orphan works and fair use limitations on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Orphan works deals with the legal conundrum of what a user may do with a work when the rightful copyright owner cannot be found to ask permission. A critical part of the solution will involve an online visual copyright registry that, much like a Google Image search, will help to reunite orphaned images with their rightful owners.
Alex Curtis Biography
Alex is Director of Policy and New Media for Public Knowledge (aka PK), aWashington, DC based public interest organization that works on behalf of consumers and innovators at the intersection of copyright, telecommunications, and information policy. Before finding PK, Alex interned on Capitol Hill for United States Senators Mike DeWine and George V. Voinovich He worked on legislative issues such as Broadband, Digital Online Music, and Open Access to networks, while at the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alex graduated from Wake Forest University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He later earned his Juris Doctorate in 2001 from the University of Akron School of Law, where he focused on intellectual property.