To add to the uglies of Iran and Kazakhstan, amongst others, here's the 'orrible Communist Party doing what it does best - brooking no internal dissent and ensuring the Internet is censored as tightly as possible.
Australia is a blip in the bit-ocean by comparison...
EDIT: the excellent blog post by Rebecca McKinnon further analyzes many of the 2009 moves by the Beijing junta, to which it might be added that with much fanfare the entire region of Xinjiang has had extremely minimal Internet access restored after 6 months - with email, comment on news sites and international texts/calls still banned.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
14 January: McGill talk
I will be speaking at Media@McGill on 14 January, on the (hopefully intriguing) subject of 'Towards Medium law' - and net neutrality....all welcome, I believe...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Net Neutrality: order your preview copy now
Directive 2009/136/EC: Recital 34
Just to emphasise my many previous posts, what is intended with regard to EU net neutrality is actually a very 'lite' approach, ensuring services are not blocked and/or degraded beyond usefulness:
(34) A competitive market should ensure that end-users enjoy the QoS they require, but in particular cases it may be necessary to ensure that public communications networks attain minimum quality levels so as to prevent degradation of service, the blocking of access and the slowing of traffic over networks. In order to meet QoS requirements, operators may use procedures to measure and shape traffic on a network link so as to avoid filling the link to capacity or overfilling the link, which would result in network congestion and poor performance. Those procedures should be subject to scrutiny by NRAs... in particular by addressing discriminatory behaviour, in order to ensure that they do not restrict competition. If appropriate, NRAs may also impose minimum QoS requirements on undertakings to ensure that services and applications dependent on the network are delivered at a minimum quality standard, subject to examination by the Commission. NRAs should be empowered to take action to address degradation of service, including the hindering or slowing down of traffic, to the detriment of consumers. However, since inconsistent remedies can impair the functioning of the internal market, the Commission should assess any requirements intended to be set by NRAs for possible regulatory intervention across the Community and, if necessary, issue comments or recommendations in order to achieve consistent application.
(34) A competitive market should ensure that end-users enjoy the QoS they require, but in particular cases it may be necessary to ensure that public communications networks attain minimum quality levels so as to prevent degradation of service, the blocking of access and the slowing of traffic over networks. In order to meet QoS requirements, operators may use procedures to measure and shape traffic on a network link so as to avoid filling the link to capacity or overfilling the link, which would result in network congestion and poor performance. Those procedures should be subject to scrutiny by NRAs... in particular by addressing discriminatory behaviour, in order to ensure that they do not restrict competition. If appropriate, NRAs may also impose minimum QoS requirements on undertakings to ensure that services and applications dependent on the network are delivered at a minimum quality standard, subject to examination by the Commission. NRAs should be empowered to take action to address degradation of service, including the hindering or slowing down of traffic, to the detriment of consumers. However, since inconsistent remedies can impair the functioning of the internal market, the Commission should assess any requirements intended to be set by NRAs for possible regulatory intervention across the Community and, if necessary, issue comments or recommendations in order to achieve consistent application.
Article 22, DIRECTIVE 2009/136/EC: Commission takes control of QoS
The net neutrality provisions are transparency in new Article 20, and this (showing that if NRAs do anything, it'll be subject to an effective veto by the Commission):
Article 22: Quality of service
1. Member States shall ensure that NRAs are, after taking account of the views of interested parties, able to require []networks and/or services to publish comparable, adequate and up-to-date information for end-users on the quality of their services... That information shall, on request, be supplied to the NRA in advance of its publication.
2. NRAs may specify, inter alia, the quality of service parameters to be measured and the content, form and manner of the information to be published, including possible quality certification mechanisms, in order to ensure that end-users... have access to comprehensive, comparable, reliable and user-friendly information.
3. In order to prevent the degradation of service and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over networks, Member States shall ensure that NRAs are able to set minimum quality of service requirements on an undertaking or undertakings providing public communications networks.
NRAs shall provide the Commission... with a summary of the grounds for action, the envisaged requirements and the proposed course of action. This information shall also be made available to the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The Commission may... make comments or recommendations... NRAs shall take the utmost account of the Commission’s comments or recommendations when deciding on the requirements.
Article 22: Quality of service
1. Member States shall ensure that NRAs are, after taking account of the views of interested parties, able to require []networks and/or services to publish comparable, adequate and up-to-date information for end-users on the quality of their services... That information shall, on request, be supplied to the NRA in advance of its publication.
2. NRAs may specify, inter alia, the quality of service parameters to be measured and the content, form and manner of the information to be published, including possible quality certification mechanisms, in order to ensure that end-users... have access to comprehensive, comparable, reliable and user-friendly information.
3. In order to prevent the degradation of service and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over networks, Member States shall ensure that NRAs are able to set minimum quality of service requirements on an undertaking or undertakings providing public communications networks.
NRAs shall provide the Commission... with a summary of the grounds for action, the envisaged requirements and the proposed course of action. This information shall also be made available to the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The Commission may... make comments or recommendations... NRAs shall take the utmost account of the Commission’s comments or recommendations when deciding on the requirements.
Always read the final page...EC Net neutrality declaration is now official
Where you find the 'Declaration on Net Neutrality' in full - reporting by end-2010:
The Commission attaches high importance to preserving the open and neutral character of the Internet, taking full account of the will of the co-legislators now to enshrine net neutrality as a policy objective and regulatory principle to be promoted by national regulatory authorities(Article 8(4)(g) Framework Directive), alongside the strengthening of related transparency requirements(Articles 20(1)(b) and 21(3)(c) and (d) of the Universal Service Directive) and the creation of safeguard powers for national regulatory authorities to prevent the degradation of services and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over public networks(Article 22(3) of the Universal Service Directive). The Commission will monitor closely the implementation of these provisions in the Member States, introducing a particular focus on how the ‘net freedoms’ of European citizens are being safeguarded in its annual Progress Report to the European Parliament and the Council. In the meantime, the Commission will monitor the impact of market and technological developments on ‘net freedoms’ reporting to the European Parliament and Council before the end of 2010 on whether additional guidance is required, and will invoke its existing competition law powers to deal with any anti-competitive practices that may emerge.
The Commission attaches high importance to preserving the open and neutral character of the Internet, taking full account of the will of the co-legislators now to enshrine net neutrality as a policy objective and regulatory principle to be promoted by national regulatory authorities(Article 8(4)(g) Framework Directive), alongside the strengthening of related transparency requirements(Articles 20(1)(b) and 21(3)(c) and (d) of the Universal Service Directive) and the creation of safeguard powers for national regulatory authorities to prevent the degradation of services and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over public networks(Article 22(3) of the Universal Service Directive). The Commission will monitor closely the implementation of these provisions in the Member States, introducing a particular focus on how the ‘net freedoms’ of European citizens are being safeguarded in its annual Progress Report to the European Parliament and the Council. In the meantime, the Commission will monitor the impact of market and technological developments on ‘net freedoms’ reporting to the European Parliament and Council before the end of 2010 on whether additional guidance is required, and will invoke its existing competition law powers to deal with any anti-competitive practices that may emerge.
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