The UK government has provided a proposed piece of prosumer law legislation that is interesting, as illustrated by their case study - but is a backdoor for net neutrality!
"A consumer buys an e-book that she downloads onto her computer. When
she opens the e-book she finds that the text is illegible. The provider
confirms there is no fault with the original digital file that was sent
and suggests that the consumer does not have the right hardware. The
consumer confirms that she has downloaded another e-book of the same
format which works well on her computer. She also checks with her
internet service provider that there were no interruptions during the
time of the download. The provider agrees (why would they??!!) that there may have been a
problem with the download (which we refer to as a ‘related service’). We
propose either: [a] the download should be provided with reasonable care and skill. In
this case to get redress the consumer would still have to prove that the
trader did not provide the download service with reasonable care and
skill; OR [b] the digital content should be of satisfactory quality once the
download has taken place. In this case the consumer would have to prove
that the digital content was not of satisfactory quality and that the
problem was not due to their internet connection or hardware. The trader
would then have to provide the consumer with redress regardless of
whether they had provided the related service with reasonable care and
skill."
How, pray, will the ISP satisfy everyone that it has provided an uninterrupted service at the point of download if it does any filtering or throttling at all? It's a net neutrality law! Graham Smith agrees:
Chris Marsden
Has #UKgov thought about #netneutrality implications of #prosumerlaw refunds for 'faulty' (jittery) downloads? #goodlaw is #regulatingcode
Graham Smith
@cyberleagle
Well a quick wordsearch on the 225 page consultation document shows no hits for net neutrality ;-) http://discuss.bis.gov.uk/consumer-bill-of-rights/ministers-introduction/
Chris Marsden
@cyberleagle yes, clueless #UKgov doesn't realize implications for #netneutrality of #prosumerlaw. Retailers will say 'your ISP's fault guv'
2 comments:
The Internet part of this scenario is an irrelevant distraction. The e-book software should verify (using checksums and/or digital signatures) that the entire, correct, file has been downloaded, and if not should keep trying until it is
The examples given in the Guardian article are better: "a consumer must receive a refund if an online game freezes or if a film stream is unwatchable even if the broadband connection is fine."
I suspect this law would encourage interactive content suppliers to develop software for the user's device that would monitor media playout and connection quality, so that suppliers could reject claims that resulted from hardware and ISP problems (and test hardware and connection before agreeing to supply the content).
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