Open Letter to the FCC

Dear FCC,

I am a technology professional who has focused on Internet related technology since the 1990's. I was a lead engineer involved with two telecommunication providers when broadband (DSL) was rolled out in my area, and was a key person involved in its deployment and implementation. The Internet has always been the vehicle which provides the food and livelihood my family requires.

The current proposal for Net Neutrality is a continuing example of the disrespect the FCC has for the People of the United States and the visionaries that have made the Internet what it is today. In the early days of the Internet it was not the lack of regulation or its mis-classification that led to its success and growth, but the existence of proper competition. During this time there were more than a dozen ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in my area providing dial-up services which drove down the prices allowing Internet access to become mainstream. As the modem market dried up and broadband services took over, larger companies used predatory practices to eliminate competition in this market. Without regulation smaller companies, who depended on government sponsored monopolies and duopolies to reach customers, saw their traffic degraded even while these larger companies reached out to their customers to provide competing services and steal them away. This environment has lead to soaring prices, bandwidth caps and questionable peering agreements. Today my area only has two viable ISPs (Comcast and AT&T) leaving consumers with no choices, and these companies are more than aware of this fact as they disconnecting users over simple billing disputes, block or degrade services or interfere with transfer between the few other providers available.

If Net Neutrality is not taken seriously and properly imposed we will never again see the growth and innovation the Internet has delivered thus far. As much as I would prefer competition in the market over regulation, the environment and landscape is already too damaged for competition to exist. Cities sign contracts to restrict even themselves from providing competing services, and these monopolistic companies control all the lines leading to the consumers' door. In addition, these ISPs also provide competing services like Voice, Video/TV, etc. and, some might say, have an obligation to their share holders to interfere with others to encourage their own growth in the market.

No matter how you try to convince yourself otherwise, ISPs are Common Carriers. Today the Internet is a Utility just like Power and Water, and consumers are suffering by your inability to properly label and regulate this new Utility. Future businesses are already failing and struggling in an uncertain market where they find themselves unable to compete or defend themselves against those who would rather put them out of business. This situation will only get worse once the FCC gives up and stops trying to enforce a free and open Internet.

Please show reason. Save the Internet. Classify ISPs as Common Carriers and promote competition by regulating the resale (and non-interference) of Internet Services directly to consumers.

Thank you.

The Great American Censorship Firewall

SOPA is set to pass on Thursday (12/15/2011) which will change the face of the internet as we know it. Most people do not understand the incredible complexities of copyright law, and the simple fact is that nearly all of us are in breach of these laws every day. Simply uploading a video to YouTube with a movie poster on the wall or music playing in the background is infringing if you do not have permission. Once SOPA is passed and the safe habor for internet and service providers is eliminated, you will find these player filtering and censoring most stuff you try to post: if they even still allow it.

This might sound apocalyptic, but there are many cases today of companies over reaching or removing content without even verifying it is in fact infringing. Now add to that SOPA which would block IPs, poison DNS records, require removal from search results and basically remove any content for any reason without ANY OVERSIGHT OR VERIFICATION. Someone simply has to accuse you of something and your business, your likelihood, your opinion will be wiped clean. This will ruin small businesses and mean only large companies with the ability to sue other large companies will survive.

Don't believe me? Do a search for Dajaz1.com and read about it. They were taken down a year ago (without SOPA) and had no recourse to get their business back until the government just decided to release it.

• How a Music Site Disappeared for a Year (NY Times)  
• DHS abruptly abandons copyright seizure of hip-hop blog (C|NET)

How about MegaUpload who got permissions from several artist to create a song and viral campaign, but got removed several times from YouTube because of Universal Music Group complains via the DMCA. Now maybe UMG has reasons and some artist's have a change of heart (we won't know until the contracts come out in court); however, UMG also brought down videos from News organizations who only REPORTED ABOUT THE DISPUTE!

• Universal music files fraudulent copyright complaints with YouTube, censors pro-Megaupload song (Boing Boing) 
• Tech News Today blocked for commenting on Megaupload video (+Tom Merritt)

And finally my favorite (to the point) article about the impact of SOPA:

• Hilary Clinton tells world leaders, "hands off the Internet"; US government prepares its own censorship regime (Boing Boing)

Regardless of what you thing about copyright law and piracy, allowing the government and large media companies to take down any content and sites without any judicial oversight does not make any sense. This is something out of science fiction stories depicting overreaching government and corporation control. This cannot be left alone. Please contact your elected officials and speak out against SOPA and Internet Censorship. Stop American Censorship (http://americancensorship.org/) has great tools that make this seamless and easy, as does the Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org/).

This is not just an attack on the internet, but our entire American Culture!