1. Net Neutrality
The Great Debate

2. Outline Dispelling any misconceptions The present The future? Issues
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

3. Do you understand what it is?
What is network neutrality?
Network design principle
No discrimination
By content
By site
By application
An “open” framework
Platform for innovation
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4. Analogy we take for granted
Electricity grid is a neutral network
Doesn’t care what you plug into outlet
Has witnessed innovation:
Media, appliances
Spawned a vast, diverse marketplace
Food for thought…
…What if one day this all changed?
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5. Notable stakeholders
vs.
YOU?
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6. Dispelling any misconceptions The present The future? Issues
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

7. The internet today
Vertical integration of cable service providers with ISP’s
Want to control quality of service levels
Blocking content
Termination monopoly pricing
Sweet hearting
What happens to QoS? No guarantees?
Don’t say it can’t happen
Telus cut access to pro-union website (Jul, 2005)
Verizon cut text messages from prochoice group (Sep, 2007)
Comcast filtering BitTorrent (Oct, 2007)
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8. The internet today Internet has become a part of our lives
Small businesses
Information source
Communication
Managing finances (e.g. banking)
94% of Americans have at most 2 choices for broadband access
Potential source of abuse by market power?
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9. Dispelling any misconceptions The present The future? Issues
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

10. Television’s fate? NBC ABC CBS CNN Fox General Electric
Disney Corporation
CBS
Viacom
CNN
AOL Time – Warner Conglomerate
Fox
Murdoch’s News Corporation
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11. Television’s fate? FCC Federal Communications Commission
Regulates all non-Federal government use of
Radio TV
Telecommunications
Largely concerns itself with content
Says it will intervene to uphold net neutrality
Time is 11:41 AM

12. Dispelling any misconceptions The present The future? Issues
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

13. Government and Free Market
Government is supposed to keep things fair in the marketplace
Regulations
Watchdogs and policing
Protect consumers
Protect businesses from anticompetitive practices
E.g. Microsoft antitrust cases
Privacy, legal protection, patents, copyrights
True free market is a meritocracy
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14. Government and Net Neutrality
Critics: government intervention means government regulation, like FCC
Cable service providers
“Need adequate funding, we can’t develop infrastructure without it”
This puts a tax on markets on top of the network
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15. Dispelling any misconceptions The present The future? Issues
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

16. Their opinions
For
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17. Their opinions
For
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18. Their opinions
Against
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19. Their opinions
For
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20. Their opinions
Against
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21. Their opinions
For
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22. Dispelling any misconceptions The present The past The future?
Their opinions
Your opinions?
Time is 11:41 AM

23. Your opinions?
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24. References NETWORK NEUTRALITY, BROADBAND DISCRIMINATION
Tim Wu
The End of End-to-End: Preserving the Architecture of the Internet in the Broadband Era
Mark A. Lemley and Lawrence Lessig
The Social Impact of Computers, 3rd Edition
Richard S. Rosenberg
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