Meeting Overview 04/01/08 at Awkward Utopia

I’ve been hesitant to post any more of my meeting records since the last one inexplicably disappeared, but today’s discussion was (in my unqualified opinion) a good one, so I’m going to put it up lest it appear I have been shirking my secretarial duties. This week’s topic: Network neutrality.

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JN: Basically, proponents of net neutrality say that every piece of data on the internet is equal, and you should be able to access them all freely at the same speed.

FC: Comcast got sued because they were limiting bandwidth to specifically targeted services (eg. video streaming).

Stephen R: When fiber was first introduced they capped downloads because the server was getting clogged. It’s inevitable that people will want to download videos. Really, people are worried about ISPs making them pay to access certain websites.

BL: Another concern is the speech implication. If an ISP is “shaping” bandwidth, it could cut off access to sources it deems objectionable. For example, there was censorship of a Pearl Jam concert. This doesn’t bother me too much, though, as they’re private companies.

Juan: Weren’t all the networks subsidized with public funds?

Johnathan L: They have monopoly power, right?

BL: The age of the telecom monopoly is fast dying.

[Chatter; General agreement that there is competition in the industry now.]

AT: Consumers are going to want to access what they want to access and will pay more for it. I heard Yahoo and Google would pay ISPs to make it easier to access their sites. Will people say they don’t care, or will they pay for neutrality? Maybe we’ll get free access for people who don’t care that much.

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SS: I still don’t understand what we’re talking about. It seems like two issues: one in which a company just plain caps the amount of bandwidth a given person gets (and makes you pay if you want more), and one in which the company goes in and restricts access to certain sites (and makes you pay to get it).

SR: Capping I think people would be okay with. The problem is there’s a bad precedent because cable companies have almost a total monopoly, they have exclusive agreements with networks and there is limited content available as a result. This is why the internet exploded in the first place. It’s dangerous because ISPs could start limiting us to just a few sponsored websites.

JN: To expand, net neutrality is the opposite of, say, censorship by the Chinese government, or throttling bit torrents. If a company is doing something like this, should people go to government for redress or will the market sort it out?

BL: I’ve always heard the complaint in the context of “we need government intervention because the free market won’t do it.” That’s true, the market won’t do it, and tiered service levels would probably emerge.

JL: Net neutrality would cause peopel to take advantage of the “unlimited, free bandwidth.” Prices would have to go up to support it.

FC: I’ll try to argue against everyone. If the free market created net neutrality, it would be fine. But there are a million different barriers to entry. People can’t just go run their own cable. If the government is going to regulate it, I would argue they can also install net neutrality. Right now it is the status quo, and the providers would be going out of business en masse if it were a problem.

AT: I don’t think the speed issue is as much of a problem; I think everyone agrees ISPs should be able to charge different prices for different services. The question is if certain content should be able to be accessed faster, which would make more people go there. I think they should be allowed by law to favor certain sites, but maybe not with the contracts they have now. It would lead to cheaper services, since presumably peopel value net neutrality. But it isn’t a problem yet.

BL: It is how it is because government set it up this way and people are used to it. A vocal and technologically savvy audience benefits from unlimited downloads, just like WalMart benefits from non-heavily-tolled Interstates.

SR: To clarify, right now, companies could technically do whatever they wanted. I’m not sure why they don’t. I’d like to know why, actually.

JN: The market is stopping it.

BL: Right now, ISPs aren’t at maximum bandwidth. It could change once they are.

AT agrees with JN: Right now, there’s nothing stopping them, yet they don’t, and I don’t think they will.

SS: From what I can tell (which isn’t much), net neutrality sounds like a stupid idea. Clearly, the market will take care of it. People will pay for the access they want.

Jose: But shouldn’t everyone have equal access to the same information? It seems like people without mainstream views will be shut out.

BL: That makes me a little concerned. The argument that Roadrunner will only get you WB-approved sites, I think, is way overblown.

JL: People will still be able access everything if they pay for it.

FC: What about poor children? They don’t deserve the same access?

AT: Are you advocating for completely free internet access?

FC: It’s actually been suggested.

SS: We’re confusing two different problems, just like last week. Government could still provide public internet access within a tiered system.

FC: So basically, what we’re saying is we should limit access to information based on what a person can afford?

AT: Just like with newspapers.

JN: The internet has made the cost of information virtually zero. Advocates say tiered service would destroy the “spirit” of the internet. It’s a feel-good argument.

Awkward Utopia

Meeting Overview 04/01/08

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