WebProNews

UK ISP Music Deal Only Sounds Reasonable

The US and Britain go about some things differently; this was as the heart of our little squabble in the 18th Century. It's not surprising an announcement that a UK ISP will be both music piracy police and provider of subscription music services doesn't seem to ring many alarms.

Cerf Proposes Alternate Strategy To Comcast

The broadband network management question has been at the center of the Network Neutrality debate for sometime, but recent scuffles between Comcast and the Federal Communications Commission have brought the issue more scrutiny. Vint Cerf, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, weighed in on that issue today, suggesting a new model for dealing with cable capacity issues.

Wu: Watch Out for OPEC 2.0

All the big newspapers have an editorial about Net Neutrality today, and the New York Times seems to be the only one running anything on the pro-side. Net Neutrality visionary (he coined the phrase) Tim Wu's editorial, entitled OPEC 2.0, compares bandwidth to oil—a necessary good tightly controlled by a few powerful entities. Wu's thesis:

Democrats Come Out For Net Neutrality

Though Net Neutrality is not a partisan issue, as evidenced by bipartisan support outside of Congress, primary support (but not all of it) for enshrining what is called the Internet's First Amendment has come from Democratic legislators. Matt Stoller, blogging for Open Left, is proud to tell everyone, then, his campaign to get 16 Democratic Senate challengers in this year's election season on board for the cause is a success.

Tired Old Goodmail Regroups, Becomes Net Neutrality Issue

Two year's ago there was a bit of a media frenzy surrounding Goodmail's apparent arrangement with AOL; if you don't recall the exact players you might remember national news coverage of the "email postage" scare in spring 2006. Well, Goodmail's back with a new CEO and a new plan: certifying video email.

New Initiative To Push Internet For Everyone

Some pretty big names will be in one place tomorrow to unveil a new initiative called InternetforEveryone.org, which aims to make access to a fast, open and affordable Internet a basic right for all Americans.

Net Neutrality Brings Foes Together

Conservative Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds did the unthinkable today: He agreed with a liberal, which is likely against stricter interpretations of The Conservative Thought Bubble Creed (Hannity, Defense Against Liberal Arts, pg. 1).  Worse, the liberal is employed by MoveOn.org, with whom agreement is punishable by excommunication and revocation of golf club membership (Limbaugh, chapters 7 and 11, El Rushbo's Guide To Neo-Conduct).

Cox, Comcast Caught Red-Dotted

Only two countries in the world have ISPs actively blocking or interfering with BitTorrent transmissions: Singapore and the United States. Only one kind of ISP in both countries, though, is doing the blocking: cable. An independent test conducted by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Software Systems showed that Comcast and Cox are both currently interfering with BitTorrent despite recent public and regulatory outrage.

Now There Are Two Net Neutrality House Bills

Congressional Net Neutrality proponents appear to be taking a multi-pronged approach to passing legislation to cement what many call the First Amendment of the Internet, a moniker that may oversimplify it a bit. Two days after Ed Markey's (D-Mass.) Internet Freedom and Preservation Act was debated in the House Energy Committee, Representatives John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) re-introduce the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act.

On Trust and Net Neutrality

The Network Neutrality debate is, to understate it, heated. On one side are ideals, on the other side is money, which is not a new dichotomy in any sense, and both can be equally powerful motivators*. Also, while passion tends to color an issue (sometimes incorrectly), economic theory tends to mire subscribers in stubborn dogma.Neither side wants to budge for fear of losing, or for fear of the embarrassment of choosing the wrong team.