:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 9.21.2009 ::
:: FCC chief proposes new Net neutrality rules ::
by Marguerite Reardon
CNET News.com
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday outlined a plan to keep the Internet open.
In a speech given at the Brookings Institute, Genachowski proposed that the FCC turn its four principles of network openness official into regulation. And he suggested that the FCC add two more "principles" as part of these new rules.
The existing principles can be summarized this way: Network operators cannot prevent users from accessing lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching non-harmful devices to the network.
Now Genachowski is proposing two new principles. The first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.
Genachowski tried to alleviate fears that the FCC will overstep its bounds and create rules that hamper innovation.
"I am convinced that there are few goals more essential in the communications landscape than preserving and maintaining an open and robust Internet," he said. "I also know that achieving this goal will take an approach that is smart about technology, smart about markets, smart about law and policy, and smart about the lessons of history."
The debate over so-called Net neutrality began heating up about three years ago, when congressional leaders first held hearings on potential laws to ensure that Internet service providers couldn't monkey with traffic. There is no clear definition of the term "Net neutrality," but in general it refers to the concept that Internet users should have unfettered access to content and services. In other words, service providers should not be allowed to either impede or favor access to particular sites or applications.
The discovery that the nation's largest cable operator, Comcast, had slowed down certain kinds of peer-to-peer traffic on its network fanned the flames and sparked public outrage over such practices.
Read more here.
A L S O
Republicans to Push Against Net Neutrality
Washington Post
posted by me
:: 7:27:00 PM [+] ::
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