Right now the Internet service providers of this world are merely the backbone behind the movement to wire everything – they provide the cable, the DSL phone lines, the fiber optic lines, the transmitters, the receivers, the switches and the servers that enable the data to move.
The right to regulate who gets to use that network and for how much remains in the hands of governments. But now the backbone wants to become the brain.
Through a lobby group misleadingly called "Hands Off The Internet" www.handsoff.org, the ISPs – a list which includes many of the world’s largest media and communications companies – are championing a new bill that would take some regulating power away from the U.S. government and put it in the hands of ISPs.
The thing is the U.S. government isn’t actually trying to over-regulate the Internet, and has been hands off for the most part. All the Federal Communications Commission wants to do is ensure that services are priced fairly and that both website hosts and ISPs comply with federal laws – including laws that ensure freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
That hasn’t stopped the ISPs from arguing that they need deregulation in order to charge heavier users and to continue to expand their networks – although we’ve gotten this far without deregulation, and the major ISPs aren’t exactly going Enron.
Opponents of deregulation argue that ISPs could conceivably use new powers over pricing and servicing to exert more influence over the content of the Internet. For example, blogs critical of the government and the media could suddenly find themselves unable to afford Internet time, while the ISPs could decide to show favouritism to certain friendly websites.
Of course the ISPs deny this will happen, but what are they going to say? Most newspapers and news agencies also deny they have any hidden political agendas in their reporting and we all know better.
Another concern about deregulation is that this is an attempt by an increasingly concentrated core of ISPs to hog bandwidth – with the major media companies rushing to launch Internet television and telephone services, they know they’re going to need all the ’net they can get. You can only push so much data through a copper wire in any given amount of time. And while overall capacity continues to increase, a lot of that extra bandwidth is put into heavily urbanized areas where companies that own the network can get more bang for their buck.
I know what you’re saying, this is an American law and this is Canada, we’re in the clear here. But it’s still of major concern.
For one, many of the same companies pushing for deregulation south of the border are also active in Canada’s network – if they’re successful down there, you can bet it’s going to be on our government’s agenda next.
The U.S. is also the world’s incubator for new ideas and technologies, good and bad, and Canada is usually just a few steps behind.
For a contrary view of the law in question, and some other issues impacting the Internet, check out Source Watch (www.sourcewatch.org), which is a subgroup of the Center for Media and Democracy. You can also read about it at the Electronic Frontier Foundation www.eff.org.
If you’re ever in doubt about who stands to benefit from one of these new laws regulating the Internet, it’s always a good idea to do what Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did and follow the money.
In this case it leads directly back to media and communications companies – media and communications companies that also happen to direct most of their political funding to conservative politicians who back things like Internet deregulation.
Rank and file
If you’re in the market for anything – HDTV, computer, software, monitor, cell phone, digital camera, PDA, printer, photo printer, portable music player – anything with chips and wires, check out PC World’s list of the top-100 products from last year www.pcworld.com. There’s also a list of the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.
Incidentally the worst five tech products, according to PC World’s editors, are AOL, the RealNetworks RealPlayer debut of 1999, Syncronys SoftRAM, Windows ME (sometimes referred to as the Windows ‘Mistake Edition’), and those Sony BMG CDs from last year that loaded spyware onto your computer while opening the door to hackers.
Website of the Week
www.gutenberg.org – If you’re not familiar with Johannes Gutenberg, he’s the German metal worker who first invented the whole concept of moveable type back in 1447, a breakthrough that made mass printing possible (for Europe anyway, a Chinese printer predates Gutenberg’s invention by over 200 years).
The first book mass-produced using moveable type was the Bible, and surviving editions of Gutenberg Bibles fetch a huge price from collectors.
Project Gutenberg doesn’t have much to do with Gutenberg himself, except for the fact that the various groups behind it – libraries, universities, museums etc. – have taken the concept of moveable type to another level. This website has 18,000 books available at no cost, and its collection is about to be buoyed by another 300,000 titles. All free.
