Catching Up

It seems like all of my available mediageek energy has been poured into the radioshow lately, the result of having a firm weekly commitment to dozen stations. Were the radioshow a non-broadcast podcast I’m not so certain I would be so diligent.

At least I can say that I’ve had a couple of great guests recently that you really should check out if you haven’t already listened to the shows.

Faythe Levine was my guest on August 22 where we talked about her upcoming documentary film and book, both named Handmade Nation. The project’s nice new website just went online. Faythe was also featured in today’s New York Times Home section in an article looking at the DIY craft phenomenon and connecting it to her own home design. She scanned in the print article to her Flickr site.

One of the hardest working folks in the media reform, Gigi Sohn, was last week’s guest. Gigi is the executive director of Public Knowledge, a public interest group that does great work on issues like spectrum use and preservation, intellectual property and broadcast ownership. On this show we talked about the FCC’s recent sanctions against Comcast, and why that decision deserves recognition as an historical moment in the modern media reform movement.

I have another interesting interview slated for this week’s radioshow, too. My friend Sarah Kanouse will tell us about Voices of America, a participatory radio remix project she put together along with Lee Azzarello of free103point9. You can listen live to the show when it first airs on community radio WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign, IL on Friday at 5:30 PM CDT, either over the airwaves or over the internet. It will be available online at the radioshow page shortly thereafter.

Catching up with friends

My pals on the internets have been keeping busy informing the masses about what’s really going on with overlords of our media environment. If you don’t keep up with Matthew Lasar’s Ars Technica articles or John Anderson’s DIYmedia missives, here’s some recent posts you should check out:

• Matthew reports that FCC Democrat Jonathan Adelstein is now on board to approve the Sirius/XM satellite radio merger, but only with significant conditions. This makes him commissioner #2 after Chairman Martin. Matthew also digs up some interesting dirt about Commissioner Tate tapping industry lobbyists for advice.
• John comments on the “glimmer” of hope that the FCC would take real action against Comcast for its BitTorrent filtering being downgraded to a “mirage.”
  

  After about a day and a half of happy-buzz, Martin and the FCC clarified their position – Comcast will not be substantially penalized in any meaningful fashion for its data-discrimination practices. There will be no further investigation, no priority inquiry, not even a monetary forfeiture: instead, the FCC will require the company to “disclose” its bandwidth-management practices and “encourage” Comcast to adopt more “protocol-agnostic” methods of shaping the traffic that flows over its pipes.

• Back in June John noted the current trends in FCC enforcement action against unlicensed broadcasters, observing that “the FCC is on relative track to meet its record-breaking enforcement effort of last year.” However, the FCC isn’t collecting any more financial forfeitures, and
  

  Although the FCC is getting more diligent about reducing the time between finding out about a pirate and making contact with the station, there is no obvious correlation between a diminution of stations on the air as a result.

FCC Hearing on Broadband and the Digital Future Going On Now

If you enjoy a good FCC hearing now and again, you can watch the hearing live online:
http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#jul21

If you don’t quite have the four and a half hours to spare you should be able to watch an archive on the FCC website within some reasonable timeframe after the hearing is over. If you prefer a digest version, I intend to play some excerpts on this coming Friday’s radioshow.

If you prefer a text digest, at least one Twitter user is live-tweeting the hearing from Pittsburgh.

And, I write this under the assumption that somehow anything at this hearing will make a difference….

Wrap Up on Senate Net Neutrality Hearing

The Benton Foundation has compiled an excellent wrap-up of testimony and press coverage of yesterday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on network neutrality.

Martin’s Straw House of Network Neutrality

After listening to Chairman Martin’s testimony [PDF / webcast] to the Senate Commerce Committee today, along much of his Q&A with members of the committee, I can’t help but think that Martin is really walking a tightrope. On the one hand, he asserts quite confidently that the Commission has the legal right to enforce its Internet Policy Statement [PDF], while acknowledging that Comcast and other ISPs dispute that ability. On the other hand, he also refuses to recognize the rather obvious utility of Congress enshrining these principles as law so that the FCC’s ability to protect internet freedom is no longer so easily subject to question.

The problem with the Commission’s Internet Policy Statement is that it is, fundamentally, just a statement. It represents the Commission’s interpretation of what it is supposed to do, but does not necessarily represent actual regulation or law. Per the statement itself, the FCC says:

In this Policy Statement, the Commission offers guidance and insight into its approach to the
Internet and broadband that is consistent with these Congressional directives.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but “guidance and insight” do not law nor regulation make.

And so it is as if Martin insists on building a straw house of network neutrality, even as prominent congresspeople offer to give him bricks. Of course, I doubt many (if any) congresspeople will be deterred from supporting Net Neutrality legislation simply because Martin refuses to ask for it. But it provides good cover for those who want to duck under it.

It would be one thing if Martin were ignoring Comcast’s blocking, or defending Comcast’s “network management” practices. Instead, he expresses forthright criticism of Comcast, especially the fact that it hid the fact of its practice. In fact, especially listening to today’s testimony, it appears that for Martin the hiding is almost the greater sin than the blocking itself.

That sounds like Martin acknowledging market failure–where consumers don’t have the proper information to make informed broadband choices–but yet he remains still faithful in so-called market solutions in lieu of actual law or regulation with teeth.

But honestly, I still can’t quite figure out where he’s coming from. He’s definitely sounds more net neutrality friendly than ever before — and likely more friendly than either the big ISPs or congressional Republicans would like. But he won’t cross that line and make any guarantees. Remember, this is the same chairman who oversaw the elimination of common carriage requirements on the Internet, sparking the whole need for network neutrality law and regulation in the first place. Is he truly acting on principle or is he just avoiding a strong position, biding his time until the election when he might have the opportunity to bail and get a cushy industry job?

Larry Lessig Explains Network Neutrality, now with slides

Stanford law Prof. Larry Lessig apparently recorded his own testimony at the FCC hearing last week, and sync’d it up with his PowerPoint/Keynote slides into a nice little video that he’s posted to his blog.

I tuned in too late to catch his presentation last Thursday, and the hearing wasn’t even over by the time I needed to have last week’s radioshow finished, so I unfortunately wasn’t able to include any of it in last week’s show. I’m glad that I went back to hear/watch it because it’s a very succinct, yet penetrating summary of the issues at hand. I don’t have time to play the entire thing on this week’s show, but I will be sure to include an excerpt.

You can watch all 25 minutes–with not a minute wasted–after the jump.

Read more »

Senate Comm Hearing on Net Neutrality Right Now

I didn’t even know it was happening, until I saw Free Press’ tweets this morning. They’re live-twittering it right now if you want to follow along:

Martin: Failure to disclose network management practices or tolls would be unreasonable. Actual practice of discrimination may or may not be

Dorgan is questioning Martin, trying to make a point that nondiscrimination regulation wouldn’t be heavy-handed, intensive or onerous. 7 minutes ago from web

Martin is recapping testimony FCC has received re:Comcast from previous hearings. He paints a pretty negative picture of Comcast’s practices 11 minutes ago from web

Martin concerned with ISP disclosure/transparency, and making sure consumer expectations are appropriate to the service purchased… 14 minutes ago from web

First witness is FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, fresh off the Stanford hearing, saying FCC has responsibility and authority to address problems. 16 minutes ago from web

Stevens: It’s “unfortunate” that Net Neutrality debate has become drawn out along political lines. 19 minutes ago from web

Sen. Ted “tubes” Stevens: Ne Neutrality is a solution “in search of justification” 20 minutes ago from web

For those more A/V inclined, there’s a live stream, too.

Stanford Score: Internet Freedom 1, Comcast United 0

I was able to listen to a pretty good portion of the testimony at yesterday’s FCC hearing on broadband network management at Stanford University. My overall impression is that the public interest in a free, open internet got a pretty fair hearing, overall, with even some of the more “free market” economists having to admit market failure and problems with Comcast’s blocking BitTorrent, even if they still don’t like net neutrality (or at least not the term “network neutrality).

Two interesting moments for me were when Michele Combs from the Christian Coalition testified that Comcast was blocking torrents distributing the King James bible, and hearing from Robb Topolski, the software quality engineer who first identified and rooted out Comcast’s blocking technique. Highlights from some of the expert testimony air on today’s radioshow, already online, including an excerpt from Topolski.

As I mentioned yesterday, there were several people using Twitter from the audience in Stanford, posting quick updates on the action. I found this play-by-play really valuable, since I didn’t have the luxury to pay constant attention to the hearing webcast.

One of the persons twittering from the hearing, simX, posted a compilation of tweets, along with a great summary of the hearing.

SavetheInternet.com has a short summary with links to some of the written testimony.

The FCC has archived the audio from the hearing, along with captions [Real Audio].

Free Press Live Blogging from Stanford FCC Hearing

Free Press is keeping a live blog of the FCC Hearing on Net Neutrality at Stanford University. Looks like at least 300 people have showed up to be in the audience so far.

I got too hung up with work to tune in right at 2 PM and the FCC’s RealAudio feeds are all full and I unfortunately missed Larry Lessig’s testimony (anyone able to record it?). Luckily there were still streams available at VON TV.

I just heard the rep from the Christian Coalition testify that the King James Bible–I believe that’s in the public domain, no?–is being shared over BitTorrent, therefore also blocked by Comcast. Interesting.

FCC Net Neutrality Hearing Lineup Announced

The FCC finally announced the lineup for the hearing on Network Management at Stanford University tomorrow, and it looks pretty good, including:

Lawrence Lessig, C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; Rick Carnes, President, Songwriters Guild of America; Jean Prewitt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Independent Film &
Television Alliance; Barbara van Schewick, Assistant Professor of Law, Stanford Law School;
Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Media Access Project; Blake Krikorian, Chief Executive Officer, Sling Media; Ben Scott, PolicyDirector, Free Press.

Let’s hope that real concerned citizens have a fair opportunity to give their testimony tomorrow.

The Commission will have a live audio stream of the hearing, and VON TV will host a video stream.

I’ll have some highlights on Friday’s radioshow.