In The Know -- July 11, 2008

Whats New:

Network Neutrality

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

Spectrum Reform

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

Network Neutrality

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

ACTA

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: