The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Monday hearing in Cambridge, Mass., will be a reality check about how control of the Internet can be accomplished, by whom, and what the consequences will be.
Commissioners will have the chance to question, in public, representatives of businesses that could be affected by Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent and to make Comcast defend itself in the face of live criticism from those who know the Internet best. Comcast and the FCC will have to tell David Reed, who originated the “end to end” architecture idea for the Internet why it’s better to have Comcast and other network operators take control, rather than users and content suppliers. BitTorrent will note how the technology is going mainstream, used by such respectable customers as NASA.
Here’s the agenda:
11:45 a.m. Technology Demonstration – Gilles BianRosa, Chief Executive Officer, Vuze, Inc.
12:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 1: Policy Perspectives
Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Free Press
Yochai Benkler, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
The Honorable Daniel E. Bosley, State Representative, Massachusetts
David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation
The Honorable Tom Tauke, Executive Vice President – Public Affairs, Policy and Communications, Verizon Communications
Timothy Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Christopher S. Yoo, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School
1:30 Lunch break
2:15 Panel Discussion 2: Technological Perspectives
Daniel Weitzner, Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Decentralized Information Group
Richard Bennett, Network Architect
David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Eric Klinker, Chief Technology Officer, BitTorrent
David P. Reed, Adjunct Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab
Scott Smyers, Senior Vice President, Network & Systems Architecture Division, Sony Electronics Inc.