The U.S. urgently needs an Internet that functions well, is accessible to all, and isn’t interfered with by incumbent communications providers, Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford said in an interview Thursday. Backed by the institute’s Four Freedoms Center, Crawford, a former ICANN board member and special assistant to President Barack Obama for science, technology and innovation policy, is spearheading a multi-year project to bring high-speed fiber Internet services to the entire country. That means working at the local level to help communities build their own fiber networks, and fighting back on the national level against the major players who control access, she said.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
EU lawmakers Thursday overwhelmingly approved a measure allowing access to works whose rights owners can’t be found, paving the way for digitization of orphan works. The draft directive, a “trilogue” compromise among the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Ministers, will help public-service broadcasters, libraries, archives and similar institutions disseminate previously inaccessible content. It proves that copyright and technology can be brought together in the Internet age through working together, said European Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli during a pre-vote parliamentary debate. He said the measure gives cultural institutions the legal certainty they need to make content available online. Some legislators and one consumer group called it disappointing.
Hadopi, the French anti-piracy body created by the controversial law on creation and the Internet, is facing budget cuts amid growing criticism that it’s too expensive and ineffective. The institution, dedicated to distributing protected works and safeguarding digital rights, enforces a gradual response system in which suspected infringers first receive warning emails and letters, then can be prosecuted, and, finally, face Internet cut-off. Graduated response, or “three-strikes,” has been held out as a model that other countries could use against illegal downloading. Given Hadopi’s problems, it’s hard to believe other nations will pursue it, said digital rights activists. The body may survive in France, but under a new merged regulator akin to the Office of Communications in the U.K., said Hogan Lovells (Paris) media and communications lawyer Winston Maxwell.
The EU will set its position on the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) after a September coordination conference in Copenhagen, Ryan Heath, spokesman for Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, told us Wednesday. The Dec. 3-4 meeting in Dubai will consider revisions to the 1988 amendments to the ITU’s treaty-level International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). The European Commission is actively involved in preparatory talks leading up to the WCIT to ensure a successful outcome for the EU, Heath said. The September meeting of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations will allow European participants to the ITU conference to work toward a common position, he said. At the same time, the EC is finalizing a proposal to the Council of Ministers for a common EU stance on issues where EU law is involved, as required by the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, he said. This should be completed in coming days, with a view to EU governments’ agreement sometime between now and Dubai, he said. Any common position must first ensure that ITR revisions don’t conflict with current EU legislation, he said. The EC also believes that “care needs to be taken to ensure that the outcome of Dubai does not limit the EU’s own policy and regulatory options in the future,” he said. Moreover, the EC isn’t convinced that any significant increase in the scope of the ITRs is justified, given the success of the current regulations in spurring the explosion of innovation, competition and investment in international telecom services seen in the intervening 24 years, he said. The U.S. proposed several revisions to the ITRs last week (CD Aug 6 p2).
U.K. government thinking on broadband rollout has veered off course because of its focus on “superfast” services and a failure to consider broadband as a “major strategic asset” equal to roads, railways and energy networks, the House of Lords Communications Committee said in a report Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnivqn). It recommended the creation of open-access fiber hubs to drive broadband as close as possible to users. It also said that at some point it may be better to move TV broadcasting to Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), to free spectrum for mobile uses. The government said it’s on the right track. One analyst called the report ambitious but inconsistent, while a former FCC official cheered lawmakers for starting a public debate on the issues.
Key U.K. ISPs signed a voluntary code to keep the Internet open, the Broadband Stakeholder Group said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnh582). They agreed to provide full, open Internet products and not to use traffic management practices to target or degrade rivals’ services, it said. The code (http://xrl.us/bnh588) reflects that some ISPs have considered offering managed services that would allow a specific piece of content, service or application to be delivered without risk of degradation from network congestion, but that such services “are still at a very early stage and it is difficult to predict how widely they will be offered or used.” Their emergence, however, raises questions about their impact on best-efforts Internet access and whether they could lead to less-than-welcome unintended consequences, the document says. Concern about those issues has led to increased focus on ISP traffic management policies, in particular: (1) The need to give consumers clear information about traffic management practices that could be relevant to the service choices they make. (2) Users’ continued ability to access legal content, apps and services through ISP products. (3) The risk that negative discrimination by ISPs could hurt content, application and services providers. (4) The potential effect of a new managed services market on “best efforts” Internet access and the ability of the Internet to remain an open platform for innovation. The Office of Communications, in a November statement on the issues, acknowledged that traffic management can play a positive role in the Internet’s success, but that certain practices could lead to harmful consequences such as preventing users from accessing what they choose to see online, the code says. Ofcom also stressed the need to use best efforts, but said its preferred approach would be to try to ensure that the benefits of those efforts and managed service coexist, the code says. Ofcom declined to regulate, but said it would monitor ISPs’ progress in giving consumers transparent information; the ongoing quality of best-efforts access; and the prevalence and nature of products that block services, in order to assess if rules are needed, the code says. Signers believe Ofcom is “broadly correct,” but that some steps can be taken at this early stage to ensure that innovation leads to positive market outcomes and coexistence of managed services with best-efforts access, it says. Signers agreed to support the concept of an open Internet and the general principle that legal content, applications and services shouldn’t be blocked. In cases where certain classes of legal content, services and apps are unavailable on a product, they agreed not to use the term “Internet access” to describe or market the products, and to ensure they communicate any restrictions effectively to consumers. They also committed to supporting the provision of clear and transparent traffic management policies. Ofcom will monitor compliance with the commitments, and the code includes a process for raising concerns about possible negative discrimination. Signers are BE Broadband, British Telecom, BSkyB, KCOM, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile and Three. The Internet Telephony Services Providers Association welcomed the action but said it’s “unfortunate” that not all communications providers signed up. ITSPA members have long been concerned about the traffic management and transparency practices of some providers, particularly mobile operators, said Chair Eli Katz. He cheered the companies for allowing VoIP services on their networks and not adding charges. The code appears to build on Ofcom’s “pragmatic approach to net neutrality,” said Ovum analyst Matthew Howett. ISPs and over-the-top players generally recognize that managed services are needed to build and maintain a sustainable Internet model, he said. It’s an area of constant evolution and it’s “reassuring” that self-regulation is being explored, rather than a “heavy-handed and possibly premature intervention from the regulator,” he said. Howett urged the Broadband Stakeholder Group to clarify what “full Internet access” means.
The U.K. Office of Communications revamped plans to auction 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum for next-generation 4G mobile networks. If all goes to plan -- and earlier proposals prompted litigation threats from Britain’s big mobile operators -- Ofcom said it expects to invite applications before the end of the year, with bidding to start in early 2013. Operators said they're reviewing the lengthy documents before making substantive comments. Although the package makes no substantial changes from the earlier one, the regulator worked hard this time to make it as immune to challenge as possible, said Ovum analyst Matthew Howett.
A European Commission focus on potential risks of the Internet of Things (IoT) could lead to policies that stifle innovation, the European-American Business Council said in a Thursday response to an EC consultation. The EABC and other industry groups agreed that design and rollout of the IoT must take account of privacy, security, standards, governance and interoperability issues, but not through more regulation. Instead, they pressed for industry-led standards and application of existing measures, such as EU data protection rules. Separately, IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid said the IoT should run on the newest Internet Protocol (IP) version.
EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes issued a policy statement Thursday on broadband investment in high-speed pipes. She outlined the conclusions of an extensive debate on the role of regulation in promoting competition and investment, and the regulations she’s planning. Network and cable operators backed the proposals, but alternative telcos accused Kroes of turning her back on them.
EU lawmakers Wednesday blocked the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in what the author of the lead committee report called the “biggest ever defeat” of a European Commission legislative proposal. The EC could present Parliament with revised language later, but it’s more likely that the treaty is dead, said David Martin, of the U.K. and Socialists and Democrats. The 478-39 vote was the first time the body exercised its power under the new EU Treaty to reject an international trade agreement, Parliament said. The move shows that digital rights, as a political issue, is now center-stage for European policymakers, European Digital Rights Advocacy Coordinator Joe McNamee said in a newsletter. The intellectual property (IP) community, however, was furious.