| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
02 Mar 2006 09:51:04 PM |
| Object: |
Senate Bill to Address Fears of Blocked Access to Net |
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/technology/02online.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Senate Bill to Address Fears of Blocked Access to Net
By KEN BELSON
Published: March 2, 2006
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, will introduce new legislation
today that would prohibit Internet network operators from charging
companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers or favoring
some content providers over others.
The bill is meant to ease growing fears that open Internet access may be
blocked or compromised by the Bell phone carriers and cable operators,
which may create tiers of service for delivering content to consumers,
much the way the post office charges more for overnight mail delivery
than for regular delivery.
Consumer groups and Internet companies like Google and Amazon contend
that any move by the network operators to levy fees for premium delivery
service would harm Web sites that are unwilling to pay for faster
delivery.
The Wyden legislation, called the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of
2006, aims to prohibit network operators from assessing charges that
give some content providers better access than others or blocking its
subscribers from accessing content.
"You best compete by letting every company play on a level field, but
these proposals would tilt the field," Senator Wyden said of the plans
discussed by some network operators. "The Net has been about access and
equal treatment and giving everyone a fair shake, and people who own
these fat pipes, these cable and telecommunications people who say that
they can't keep doing this, want to undermine that."
He added that his bill would prevent network operators from giving
preferential treatment to affiliated companies. Time Warner Cable, he
said, should not be able to give other Time Warner companies better
access to the network than their rivals.
The bill more squarely confronts the concerns of consumer groups than a
broader bill proposed last summer by Senator John Ensign, Republican of
Nevada, which would prevent Internet service providers from blocking
access, but would largely leave network operators to manage their own
networks, including potentially charging content providers for a premium
service.
That bill has won support from 16 Republican senators.
The Federal Communications Commission has largely stood on the sidelines
as this debate as evolved. Though the commission has said it supports
the principle of open, undifferentiated access to the networks, it has
not taken any regulatory action.
"One reason I'm hesitant to have the commission jump in is because we
don't want to impede companies' ability to invest," said Kevin Martin,
the commission chairman.
Phone and cable companies largely agree that they should have the right
to offer Internet companies the option of paying for faster delivery of
their content. They argue that since traffic over their networks is
rising, companies may want to pay to ensure that their Web sites can be
accessed quickly by consumers.
Executives at Verizon, for instance, want to give companies a chance to
buy a dedicated link to Verizon's customers so that their data would be
set apart from general traffic on the network.
But consumer groups say that creating a "fast lane" for those who can
pay would ultimately result in a series of "walled" networks run by the
phone and cable companies, which is very different from the open
Internet model that exists now.
"We're concerned that even if you have a robust basic Internet and
higher-speed lane, they will only make it available to their favorite
partners, and that's discrimination," said Gigi Sohn, the president of
Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that focuses on telecommunications
and intellectual property issues.
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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| User: "Conspiracy of Doves" |
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| Title: Re: Senate Bill to Address Fears of Blocked Access to Net |
02 Mar 2006 11:40:41 PM |
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stoney wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/technology/02online.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Senate Bill to Address Fears of Blocked Access to Net
By KEN BELSON
Published: March 2, 2006
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, will introduce new legislation
today that would prohibit Internet network operators from charging
companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers or favoring
some content providers over others.
The bill is meant to ease growing fears that open Internet access may be
blocked or compromised by the Bell phone carriers and cable operators,
which may create tiers of service for delivering content to consumers,
much the way the post office charges more for overnight mail delivery
than for regular delivery.
Consumer groups and Internet companies like Google and Amazon contend
that any move by the network operators to levy fees for premium delivery
service would harm Web sites that are unwilling to pay for faster
delivery.
The Wyden legislation, called the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of
2006,
Wow. A bill in Congress whose name is actually descriptive of what the
bill says. How novel.
.
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