In The Know -- July 11, 2008

Most recent activity:

July, 11, 2008

Issues: 
Copyright
Network Neutrality


Whats New:

Public Knowledge and Free Press Shine A
Light on Behavioral Advertising

Earlier this week, Robb Topolski, chief technology consultant for Public
Knowledge and Free Press, served on a panel of experts at a Senate staff
breifing on the topic of Internet privacy and behavioral advertising, in
advance of
a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the matter. During his
appearance before Congressional staffers, Robb referenced his own
research findings, which were published last month in the form of a paper
that analyzed the activities of California-based behavioral advertising
company NebuAd. In the report, Topolski—who is credited as being
the first to document Comcast’s throttling of Bit Torrent
traffic—investigates the methods that NebuAd uses to observe and
record user activity on the Internet, in order to sell highly-targeted
advertisements. In the report, Topolski finds that NebuAd and its
partners “violate several fundamental expectations of Internet
privacy, security and standards-based interoperability, by altering code,
collecting user data and redirecting web traffic, all on an opt-out
basis. The report was widely cited and reported on by a number of news
sites, including the LA Times, the Washington Post,
Wired, eWeek, GigaOm, Ars Technica,
ZDnet, Crunchgear, the Inquirer and
PaidContent.org. In the weeks since the report was first
released, a number of NebuAd’s ISP partners including Charter,
Embarq, WOW! and CenturyTel have announced that they’ve put their
deals with NebuAd on hold, pending a Congressional inquiry.

For more on NebuAd: Read the
full report (PDF) and see this blog post

Related issues: Broadband |
Comcast
| Network
Neutrality

Public Knowledge Conditions Included in
FCC’s XM-Sirius Merger Draft Order

Public Knowledge’s suggestions remain at the center of the ongoing
discussion over the terms and conditions of the XM and Sirius Satellite
radio merger. Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated a
draft order that would permit the merger subject to six conditions. In
turn, XM and Sirius filed a letter with the FCC wherein the companies
vowed to abide by that same set of conditions, in exchange for an FCC
approval of the merger. Among the conditions included were four
provisions that Public Knowledge has promoted in Congressional testimony
and FCC filings for the past year and a half. While this came as welcome
news, Public Knowledge took issue with a few points in XM and
Sirius’ letter, most of which relate to the implementation of 1) a
set-aside for non-commercial and educational programming and 2) a
requirement that would allow consumers to attach any device to the
satellite radio network.

For more on the XM-Sirius merger, see this blog post by
Public Knowledge President and Co-founder, Gigi Sohn

OECD Ministerial: Protecting the Internet
is a Public Policy Priority

In June, Ministers, technologists and other officials from around the
world met in Seoul, South Korea for a Ministerial on the Future of the
Internet Economy, hosted by the OECD (The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development). As part of the Ministerial, the OECD voted
to adopt the Seoul Declaration, which states, “Protecting the
Internet is a public policy priority.” As such, the Declaration
encourages OECD member states to work toward building a safer and more
accessible Internet, in order to maintain the Internet’s role as a
driving force in the global economy. By increasing competition in the
marketplace, lowering prices, encouraging deployment of broadband
infrastructure and fighting online data theft and Spam, the OECD member
states hope to “stimulate sustainable economic growth and
prosperity by means of policy and regulatory environments that support
innovation, investment, and competition in the information and
communications technology (ICT) sector.” Public Knowledge Staff
Attorney and Director of the Global Knowledge Initiative, Sherwin Siy,
was on hand for the Ministerial and was involved in the drafting of both
the Civil Society Seoul Declaration and a related background paper, both
of which summarize the policies that a coalition of civil society groups
believes are necessary to protect the rights of consumers, users, and
citizens online.

For more on the OECD Ministerial, see Sherwin’s blog posts from
Seoul. Post 1 |
Post 2 | Post 3

Related issues: Network
Neutrality | Broadband

G8 Endorses Secretive Trade Agreement

Unless you’ve been following our blog closely, chances are that
you’ve never heard of ACTA. Just what is ACTA? At the moment, only
a handful of government officials know—and none of them are
telling. Technically, ACTA is an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
currently being negotiated by the US, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada,
Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. Earlier this week, the G8 included an
endorsement of ACTA in its “Declaration on the World
Economy”. The stated goal of the agreement is the international
enforcement of strong intellectual property rights through increased
cooperation and coordination among international governmental agencies. A
publicly available draft of ACTA does not yet exist, though its ongoing
discussions have been confirmed by all of the participating governments.
And due to a complete lack of transparency, no one outside of these
negotiations knows what ACTA actually looks like. Thanks to public
comments and a leaked discussion paper, however, we do have some idea of
what ACTA might entail and judging by the looks of it, the agreement
could pose threats to everything from Network Neutrality to generic
products. What’s more, some have suggested that if passed, ACTA
could be used as a justification for pushing through controversial
legislation in the US, as was done with the DMCA. For these reasons,
Public Knowledge has brought together a coalition of companies and NGOs
to address the threat posed by ACTA and has met with the USTR twice to
discuss the agreement. “Wherever you stand on these issues, it
shouldn’t be hard to see that they are active, controversial topics
that deserve more than a rubber stamp on the way to becoming
international law,” Sherwin Siy writes on the PK blog. “So if
the drafters of the G8 declaration know something we don’t about
ACTA that makes them so eager to endorse it, I’d sincerely hope
they’d share.”

To learn more about ACTA, read the public comments, check out
this blog post by
PK intern Ari Abramowitz and read this update by PK staff
attorney Sherwin Siy

Related issues: ACTA | Copyright

Notable Press Mentions: June-July
2008

Every month, Public Knowledge staffers are quoted, published and cited in
a wide variety of publications. Here are some of the highlights from this
past month: