On today's podcast, we walk through the agreement on online copyright infringement between ISPs and content holders, the data portability spat between Facebook and Google, and get a primer on using music on the campaign trail.  We also discuss the benefits and challenges of building local community networks with Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance and muninetworks.org.

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As reported by Christopher Mitchel from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Qwest has scored quite the little victory in its efforts to keep itself (and the good people it serves in Minnesota) from the evil socialist menace known as "local government providing broadband when the incumbent does a lousy job."

Apparently,MN State Senator Bakk and MN State Rep Dill introduced a bill that would have made it easier to for local governments to build municipal networks. Right now, it takes a local referendum vote with 65% to authorize a locality to build a network that offers commercial telephone service (and therefore any "triple play" broadband access service -- or so they read it in MN).

If the rumors are true, the FCC may be about to take a big step towards embracing its goal of being data driven, and could open the door to a more competitive Internet Service Provider (ISP) market.

According to reports, the FCC is considering requiring big telecommunications companies to lease their infrastructure to smaller competitors. This, of course, is not a new idea. Back in the day, forcing phone companies to allow competitors to access their wires resulted in thousands of dial-up ISPs competing for business.

The National Broadband Plan is a chance for the FCC to articulate a vision for improving the deployment and adoption of broadband in the United States. In two sets of comments filed this week with the FCC, we highlight recommendations that would encourage new entry into broadband markets, and encourage the FCC to put its treatment of broadband on a firmer legal ground. Additionally, along with many other public interest groups, we're a signatory to this statement encouraging the FCC to adopt a bold, yet pragmatic policy for promoting broadband.

These issues are complex--it's hard to reduce broadband policy to a couple of key phrases. In general, the market structure for broadband services has been shaped by decades of conflicted public policy. We believe that this structure should be moved in a direction that promotes the entry of new broadband competitors. This post will summarize some key points from our separate filings.

Public Knowledge just filed comments urging the FCC to pay close attention to a study (PDF) it commissioned on broadband unbundling. The study, written by Yochai Benkler and his team at Harvard’s Berkman Center, examined international broadband regulatory practices.

This was not just another study chronicling the United States’ decline in Internet prowess. Instead, the Berkman Center team examined broadband markets in a number of different countries. They then tried to figure out what types of regulatory policies were the most effective at increasing broadband penetration and access.

Last week, we filed comments in the FCC's open Notice of Inquiry on what to put in the National Broadband Plan. Among other things, we called for a "mindful" federal (and state and local) policy that looked to leverage opportunities to advance broadband deployment and adoption as part o our policy efforts generally and not just in its own little "broadband" pigeonhole.

The Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009 (BCPA) is an excellent example of what we mean by "mindful" federal policy. Introduced on the House side by Rep.

What do you think of when you hear the term, "Fiber Optic Internet Service?" My guess is that it means the same to you as it does to me, a guy with 25+ years of communications experience.  It means that the media between your connection to the Internet (as provided by your ISP) and the peering/exchange points (where your ISP connects to other network operators) is all based on fiber-optic technology.

A lot of ISPs are trying to trick you into believing that their network is like that, when it actually is less.