Sunday, July 31, 2005
Ensign Bill Lets Carriers Mess with Content
Here's the language in the Ensign Bill, aka BICCA (Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act):
In addition, Jim Baller points out (.pdf) that BICCA contains a familiar, objectionable anti-muni provision: it gives private carriers right of first refusal before cities can build their own networks. That's bad, but it's far, far worse to enshrine in law that carriers can mess with content.
a broadband service provider shall not willfully and knowingly block access to such content by a subscriber unless (A) such content is determined to be illegal; (B) such denial is expressly authorized by Federal or State law; or (C) such access is inconsistent with the terms of the service plan of such consumer including applicable bandwidth capacity or quality of service constraints.Susan Crawford suggests that, "Is determined" does not specify who determines; it's likely to be the telco. Furthermore, she notes that the carrier sets the terms of service -- judge, jury and executioner.
In addition, Jim Baller points out (.pdf) that BICCA contains a familiar, objectionable anti-muni provision: it gives private carriers right of first refusal before cities can build their own networks. That's bad, but it's far, far worse to enshrine in law that carriers can mess with content.
Technorati Tags: MunicipalNetworks, Content-Conduit
Comments:
Which problem of messing with content is more important to fix? The one that already exists (asymmetric upstream and downstream creates physical layer prohibitions on whole classes of content, esp the ones the network owners feel threatened by), or the semi-hypothetical one involving difficult to trace dirty deeds above the IP layer, irrespective of direction?
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