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[ NNSquad ] Re: David P. Reed, nnsquad member, kicks ass at the FCC hearing!!


At 01:40 PM 2/25/2008, Robb Topolski wrote:
 
>I've been listening to the audio since the first minute, and reading the
>blogs.  It's entertaining!  David Cohen, Comcast VP, got an inexplicable
>explosion of applause after his rather toothless presentation. 

I will agree that his presentation was rather toothless. However, the applause
for him was not inexplicable. He reiterated that ISPs are VERY MUCH pro-
consumer, but need to manage their networks and protect themselves from
abuse. I wish he'd explained what Vuze was really up to (don't know why
he didn't).

>I was
>confused by that, until some of the FreePress folks blogged that Comcast
>employees had arrived early and in force and occupied most of the chairs --
>locking hundreds of others out of the hearing.

I doubt that this was the case. There's no percentage in doing such a
thing, since the Commissioners are the ones that matter and they were
treated to an extremely biased presentation that left out vital information.

>Oh well, on to more positive things -- 
>
>It takes the meeting 4 hours and 22 minutes before David P. Reed kicks some
>real ass.

Unfortunately, statements in David's presentation were either misleading or
factually incorrect. For example, he claimed that all P2P applications use
TCP, which is absolutely untrue. GNUtella and other P2P applications use
UDP -- and in fact try to punch holes in firewalls to do so.

> - The Internet has standards.

Duh.

> - The standards-making process is alive and healthy.

Actually, it's slowed down quite a bit of late. TCP/IP is ossified to the 
point where we haven't even seen much adoption of IPv6.

> - It's not the Internet Access Provider's job to create the internet.  

This is where David starts being dead wrong. Internet providers create
the Internet every day. When I climb up on a client's roof or erect a
new tower in a previously unserved rural area, I am very much making
the Internet. That's been my person mission for 15 years.

>If they change how the Internet works, then they're no longer offering the
>Internet.

Also incorrect. When we install wireless so that users don't have to rely
on DSL or cable, we're changing and improving how the Internet works. And
when we install a Web cache, we're changing how users get Web pages -- 
for the better. 

--Brett Glass