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<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 11:12 AM, Parminder <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">McTim<br><br>So you agree with Lauren that urgent regulatory action is needed to ensure network neutrality,</font></div></blockquote>
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<div>Urgent, no, action, well if the FCC principles, are a form of "action", then yes.</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">and that efforts to confuse this issue should be resisted. </font></div></blockquote>
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<div>yes</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Efforts at confusion like the arguments " </font>that Internet content edge-caching (like that used by Akamai, Amazon, Google, and many other Web services) somehow violates net neutrality principles -- clearly a false assertion.<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">" (quoting the article you forwarded.)<br>
<br>That to me is a great improvement on whatever I have ever heard you speak on network neutrality on this list :). (And i remember the precise 'confusing argument' of edge catching got discussed during NN discussions on this list.) So congrats to us, we are in a rare agreement.<br>
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<div>This is entirely in line with what I have argued in the past. I am abig fan of NN, always have been, I think we just used a different definition of NN.</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>However, what goes past me is that while i agree that when FCC is discussing NN, it is of no avail, and even reprehensible, for the implicated parties to point fingers at Google alleging another kind of anti-competitive practice, I cant see how Adam Raff's article can be criticized on this account. He mentions NN only in the passing in the opening para just to show that Google itself is not all smelling of roses. Also there is definitely a connection between NN practices and allegations about Google, both being anti-competitive activities. <br>
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<div>What connection is that?</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Rest of the article has to be dealt on its own merit, not only in terms of muddying waters in the NN debate. That is unfair. Adam clearly supports NN regulation, but he has a right to go ahead and make his case against Google. And it is not an ordinary article - it is a NYT op-ed, and so if Google has something to say or refute it must issue a rejoinder. <br>
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<div><a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-of-open.html">http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-of-open.html</a> </div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br> Just addressing one main points of Lauren's blog in defense of Google which seems so shallow. It is roughly the assertion, I have often earlier also heard, that with one click one can switch search engines. A powerful actor telling weaker dependent groups that they always have the option to move away is a old trick, and mostly a cruel one. I wont expand on this but I think everyone can understand this. </font></div>
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<div>I certainly don't. I have moved away from lots of search engines/homepages/and other web services over the decades.</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Secondly, I will move away only if I knew what logic/ algorithm Google used, and so I can decide if it works for me or not.</font></div></blockquote>
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<div>Either it works or it doesn't. If PageRank doesn't give you what you need, then try Yahoo or Bing. We, as IGC (or even CS asa whole) can't expect to seriously ask Google to show us their patented IP, can we? While we are at it, why don't we insist that coca-cola publish their recipe for Coke or that KFC tell us exactly what their secret recipe is?</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">So can we at least ask it to publish its logic of arranging search results so the consumers can make a choice. It is a wrong thing to ask? </font></div>
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<div>yes</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">So what really is Lauren's blog trying to do by being so defensive about Google and what exactly you are agreeing with is not clear to me.<br>
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<div>I agree with the below paragraph.</div>
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<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br></font>"Fundamentally, Google has simply provided better products, that more people want to use. And anyone else is free to do the same thing, at least as long as ISPs aren't permitted to strangle the Internet playing field via their total hold over Internet access to all sites!" (From Luaran's blog)<br>
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<div>Happy New Year,</div>
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<div>McTim</div></div>