Beware Of Backlash

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is going in the opposite direction to everyone else by becoming the first nation to pass an Internet neutrality law. It started when the ISPs tried to filter access to filter Internet access, which triggered a public backlash.

The Dutch ISPs must not have as much clout with the government their US or Canadian counterparts. As this Techdirt article notes, it is hard to imagine a law like this being passed in the US or Canada without getting watered down to nothing by the telco lobbyists.

However, the fact that the law in the Netherlands came about because of a public backlash, is a warning to ISPs everywhere of what can happen if you push the users too far.

Interview With CRTC Chairman

After listening to the Search Engine interview with CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, it is clear why the CRTC needs to be dissolved. If the Chairman is so completely out of touch with reality, the Commission in its current form will never be able to serve the interests of the Canadian public. If you are Canadian please take a minute to sign the petition at disolvethecrtc.ca.

And you can count me as one of Finckenstein's "Internet Hogs." I use my 3Mb/s to its maximum potential!

CRTC Calls This A Decision

Today the CRTC released their "decision" on net neutrality and usage based billing. And it was utter drivel! All they have decided is that they can't decide yet. Meanwhile the deep packet inspection continues, the throttling continues, and economic methods (UBB and caps) should be the preferred method of controlling congestion. The latter is accepted as fact even though has been disproved.

And what do we get in return for having to put up with this crap? Usage based billing will be delayed but has not been ruled out (see above). Consumers and wholesale ISPs can now complain to the CRTC about throttling. Wow, really? If we had gotten any more, we would have difficulty sitting down for a while.

If you are Canadian please head over to dissolvethecrtc.ca and sign the petition to ditch current CRTC. Here are a few others talking about this travesty disguised as a decision.

BitTorrent Defends Itself

During the recent CRTC net neutrality hearings, BitTorrent was mentioned many times, usually in a less than favourable light, by the ISPs who wish to confuse net neutrality with network management. The thing is, BitTorrent is actually a trademark owned by BitTorrent, Inc, a company started by Bram Cohen, the creator of the protocol. Although some might say that BitTorrent, Inc, is getting too cozy with the content producers, it also demonstrates that the protocol can be used for legitimate distribution.

I suppose BitTorrent, Inc felt the need to defend its name because they filed a late submission to the CRTC, that pokes holes in many of the points raised by the ISPs. Micheal Geist's summary is here. BitTorrent, Inc's client gathers a lot statistics about transfers that allows the company to understand the affect of the protocol on the network. The problem is that the CRTC will likely pay more attention to their cronies from Bell, Rogers, etc., rather than look at real technical facts.

CRTC Credibility

At the CRTC net neutrality hearings today, a discussion between member of the Commission members and the group from MTS Allstream, gave everyone the distinct impression that the Commission does not understand the relationship between wholesale ISP's and the ILEC's. My opinion of the CRTC just sank even lower which I honestly didn't believe was even possible. No wonder Canada's telecommunications ranking has fallen so low. Here is Micheal Geist's summary of today's proceedings. It's worth reading as there are a few gems in there.

CRTC Net Neutrality Hearings

The CRTC hearings on net neutrality started today. I'm too cynical about the neutrality of the CRTC itself to believe that the hearings are anything more than a sham, but I guess anything is possible. Unfortunately the questions on first day didn't improve my opinion in the least. Follow the hearings on twitter or just wait for the daily summaries on Micheal Geist's blog.

Net Neutrality

Today was the deadline for submissions to the CRTC concerning the Internet neutrality hearings in a few months. Two submissions filed today are worth noting. First there is a report (PDF) which examines how the CRTC bungled the decision to allow Bell to continue throttling bandwidth. The other document (PDF) comes from the Canadian privacy commissioner and details the ramifications of deep packet inspection as it relates to user privacy. Both reports are interesting reads and would be persuasive if the CRTC were impartial. Unfortunately, few people believe that the commission is truly impartial on neutrality as the chairman has worked for both Bell and Rogers.