In the Know -- October 27, 2006

a Public Knowledge update

Public Knowledge Asks FCC For Strong Net Neutrality Conditions

AT&T’s takeover of BellSouth is the biggest telecom deal in history. It’s now valued around $80 billion and will create a company that controls about 40 percent of the telephone lines in the U.S. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is scheduled to take up the merger at a special meeting Nov. 3, although that date could slip.

The Commission on Oct. 24 took comments on what type of conditions might be applied to the deal. The way they did it was important. The FCC put out for public comment a letter sent by AT&T proposing conditions for the merger. Among them was that the newly merged leviathan would abide by the ineffective Net Neutrality “principles” adopted by the FCC, which were conditions for approval when the former SBC took over the former AT&T.

We joined with our many friends of the It’s Our Net coalition to file comments with the Commission asking for a new principle to be added to the Net Neutrality policy — one guaranteeing non-discrimination.

This is what the coalition proposed: “The Commission should establish a fifth principle requiring AT&T to commit to treating in a nondiscriminatory manner all Internet traffic traversing its broadband facilities in either direction. It’s Our Net suggests the formulation put forth this past summer by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in their proposed joint amendment to video franchise legislation in the Senate. In the context of this merger proceeding, such language would state that end users are entitled to broadband services from AT&T ‘that shall not discriminate in their carriage and treatment of Internet traffic based on the source, destination or ownership of such traffic.’”

A copy of the comments can be found here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/itsournet-fcc-comments-20061024.pdf

When the coalition filed the comments, we chipped in with our own statement. Gigi said: “We fully agree with the proposal in the comments that the Commission should establish an enforceable principle in the merger agreement that requires the newer, larger AT&T to commit to treating in a nondiscriminatory manner all Internet traffic carried by its broadband network. Such a condition in this proceeding will go a long way to establishing Net Neutrality as the foundation for a larger broadband policy.”

You can find out more about the coalition here:
http://www.itsournet.org/

Digital Freedom Campaign Launches

Public Knowledge for years has worked on a variety of issues to protect consumers and preserve innovation. Those have included revisions to copyright law, technology mandates, and digital rights management. The threats to consumers and to innovation have appeared in Congress, in the courts, at the FCC and international organizations.

Over the years, we have worked in loose alliance with many organizations of like mind on these issues, ranging from industry groups like the Consumer Electronics Association to public interest organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. For the most part, we have reacted to audacious proposals from the content industry, and our job has been to block bad legislation.

On October 25, however, the game changed. Those of us who have been laboring in loose alliance before have joined together in a new Digital Freedom coalition. Gigi was part of the opening press event for the coalition launch, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Gigi had a nice blog post about the event here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/690

She explains the purposes of the coalition — we’re going to build grassroots support for copyright laws that enable consumers and protect innovation. As consumers become content producers and innovators, that goal becomes more important. Her full opening statement is here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/689

You can find out more about the Digital Freedom Coalition at:
http://www.digitalfreedom.org

Jim Burger Gets Surprise Award At Our Fundraiser

Our October 19 fundraiser/party was a great success. It was a lovely evening here in Washington, and about 100 or so people showed up. As previously announced, the winners of our IP3 awards were Yochai Benkler for contributions to Information Policy, Jason and Blake Krikorian for Internet Protocol and Jessica Litman in the Intellectual Property area.

However, we started something new last year — a special, not-announced President’s Award. This year, the surprised winner was Jim Burger at DowLohnes PLLC. Jim has been a stalwart in the protections of innovation and consumers for many years, first working as Washington attorney for Apple, and then with his law firm. We’ve known and admired Jim for many years, and the award is well deserved.

There’s more about the awards ceremonies, and pictures, on our blog at:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/692

If you were able to join us this year, we hope you had a good time. If not, we hope you can drop in next year.

Let’s renew our request to you: Please support PK. We just won a great victory in helping to stop the Copyright Modernization Act. We’re in the middle of the year’s biggest issue — the fight to protect a free and open Internet. Going up against the well-funded telephone and cable companies isn’t easy as they try to extend their control over what had been an open Internet for all. If that’s not enough, we’ve got to defend our ground on the broadcast flag against the continuing assaults from the content industry who are pressing not only for the TV version, but also for content controls on digital and satellite radio and for restricting recording with analog devices. Please help. There are many ways you can support PK here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/support

We thank you for your support!

Briefly:

Back when some of us were in Cub Scouts, the emphasis was on learning to tie knots and camp out. Gee, times have changed. Special Columnist Harold Feld talks about the latest in scouting — the industry-sponsored “patch”, not an official badge, sponsored by MPAA. It’s here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/686

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