[ NNSquad ] Re: FCC Hires Industry Shill to Develop US National Broadband Plan

[Richard Bennett <richard@bennett.com>]

See my article in Internet Evolution about Ed Markey's latest salvo:

While well intentioned, the legislation still has a number of major flaws. Like
its predecessors, Markey III imposes an ill-considered ban on packet
differentiation, which it terms “discrimination.” Under the bill’s provisions,
an ISP or Internet transit provider may not “provide or sell to any content,
application, or service provider… any offering that prioritizes traffic over
that of other such providers on an Internet access service.”

This restriction is in line with the widespread but mistaken belief that “all
packets are equal <http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=205>" on the Internet. Its
effect is to ban the sale of “enhanced delivery services” that would enable
innovators to develop over-the-top services that need out-of-the-ordinary
functions from the Internet’s transport system, as well as the use of management
practices that provide a boost to VoIP or similar kinds of latency-sensitive
services.

http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=180730&

RB

Lauren Weinstein wrote:

From: Richard Bennett <richard@bennett.com>
Date: August 29, 2009 7:47:24 PM EDT
    

...
  

The concern of the "net roots" faction Bowers represents seems to be that a 
diverse and talented FCC team will not endorse the simplistic vision of 
"all packets are equal" internetworking they've been trying to foist off on 
the American people since the net neutrality debate started. 
    

As far as I'm concerned, claiming that net neutrality advocates are
insisting that "all packets are (or should be) equal" is the same sort
of inaccurate, derogatory canard used by the political hacks who have
been trying to equate end of life counseling with "Nazi-like death
panels."

In both of these sorts of situations, the individuals making such
claims know (or should know) full well that they are spouting
self-serving bosh that misrepresents the actual positions of their
adversaries.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator
  

-- 
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC