[bestbits] Net Neutrality - summary of FCC new rules
Nick Ashton-Hart
nashton at consensus.pro
Fri Mar 6 12:08:08 EST 2015
For those of you looking for good definitions for these terms:
For what it is worth, both of the 2015 definitions Erik quotes aren't very good, in part because they're very un-technology-neutral (in many ways). The second is worse because it uses the phrase "communication to the public" which is a defined term in European and international copyright law which has no place being used here and it also mixes together both the ISP and services which use networks to provide Internet-based services to the public.
In the first, better to use the definition for "public telecommunications transport service" from the WTO GATS Annex on Telecommunications: "“Public telecommunications transport service” means any telecommunications transport service required, explicitly or in effect, by a Member to be offered to the public generally. Such services may include, inter alia, telegraph, telephone, telex, and data transmission typically involving the real-time transmission of customer-supplied information between two or more points without any end-to-end change in the form or content of the customer's information."
As you can see, it is very broad (thanks to "inter alia."
The definition of "Telecommunications" from the annex is also useful: "“Telecommunications” means the transmission and reception of signals by any electromagnetic means."
For those of you who support network neutrality, you may be surprised to learn that the WTO has obligations for all WTO members that could easily be argued support NN. It is a complex area (as members make commitments as to how they'll apply these rules) but it is still really worthwhile to look at this language from the annex (if you're wondering what a "Member" is, that's the term used for WTO member-countries):
(c) Each Member shall ensure that service suppliers of any other Member may use public telecommunications transport networks and services for the movement of information within and across borders, including for intra-corporate communications of such service suppliers, and for access to information contained in data bases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of any Member. Any new or amended measures of a Member significantly affecting such use shall be notified and shall be subject to consultation, in accordance with relevant provisions of the Agreement.
(d) Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, a Member may take such measures as are necessary to ensure the security and confidentiality of messages, subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade in services.
(e) Each Member shall ensure that no condition is imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks and services other than as necessary:
(i) to safeguard the public service responsibilities of suppliers of public telecommunications transport networks and services, in particular their ability to make their networks or services available to the public generally;
(ii) to protect the technical integrity of public telecommunications transport networks or services; or
(iii) to ensure that service suppliers of any other Member do not supply services unless permitted pursuant to commitments in the Member's Schedule.
(f) Provided that they satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph (e), conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks and services may include:
(i) restrictions on resale or shared use of such services;
(ii) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for inter-connection with such networks and services;
(iii) requirements, where necessary, for the inter-operability of such services and to encourage the achievement of the goals set out in paragraph 7(a);
(iv) type approval of terminal or other equipment which interfaces with the network and technical requirements relating to the attachment of such equipment to such networks;
(v) restrictions on inter-connection of private leased or owned circuits with such networks or services or with circuits leased or owned by another service supplier; or
(vi) notification, registration and licensing.
(g) Notwithstanding the preceding paragraphs of this section, a developing country Member may, consistent with its level of development, place reasonable conditions on access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks and services necessary to strengthen its domestic telecommunications infrastructure and service capacity and to increase its participation in international trade in telecommunications services. Such conditions shall be specified in the Member's Schedule.
On 5 Mar 2015, at 08:19, JOSEFSSON Erik <erik.josefsson at EUROPARL.EUROPA.EU> wrote:
> To supplement Amelia, here are Council definitions as elaborated in Brussels on 2 March 2015:
>
> (1) “internet access service” means a publicly available electronic communications service that provides access to the internet, and thereby connectivity to substantially all end points of the internet, irrespective of the network technology and terminal equipment used;
>
> (2) “provider of electronic communications to the public” means an undertaking providing public electronic communications networks or publicly available electronic communications services.
>
> What's still unclear to me (sorry) is whether anything in the TSM package change and/or contradict the Telecoms Package (2009/136 + 140/EC)?
>
> Best regards.
>
> //Erik
>
> ________________________________________
> From: bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] on behalf of Amelia Andersdotter [amelia.andersdotter at piratpartiet.se]
> Sent: Wednesday 4 March 2015 23:27
> To: bestbits at lists.bestbits.net
> Subject: Re: [bestbits] Net Neutrality - summary of FCC new rules
>
> Dear all,
>
> For completion, the European Union has defined "information society
> services" in 1998 as "'2. "service", any Information Society service,
> that is to say, any service normally provided for remuneration, at a
> distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a
> recipient of services."
>
> See
> http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31998L0048&qid=1425507396962&from=EN
>
>
> This should be the amended act:
> http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1425507490929&uri=CELEX:31998L0034
>
>
> These texts have been mostly ignored since 1998, but re-emerged in the
> network and information security discussions after 2013. Some of you may
> be familiar with ongoing discussions of whether internet services should
> be included therein (such as cloud services), due to the heavy
> obligations laid on service providers to collaborate with public
> authorities were that to be the case.
>
> best regards,
>
> Amelia
>
> On 03/04/15 18:15, Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:
>> Dear Seth and others,
>>
>> With respect to the last sentence, WTO obligations are intentionally designed to be technology neutral; otherwise, trade commitments would be out-of-date the moment they were made.
>>
>> It is widely understood that the Internet, and many activities that take place upon it as services, are covered by existing commitments.
>>
>> I recommend the writings of Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, perhaps the most widely recognised expert in digital trade worldwide, many of which can be found here: http://www.ecipe.org/browse/?subj_subject=41&subj_category=ecipepublications&subj_year=&subj_order=recent
>>
>> As to classical definitions, the Telecom Reference Paper is probably your best source, see here: https://www.wto.org/english/Tratop_e/serv_e/telecom_e/tel23_e.htm
>>
>> I suspect you'll find that despite its age, the reference paper has stood the tests of time quite well.
>>
>> On 4 Mar 2015, at 17:49, Seth Johnson <seth.p.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> That looks like ISIC. Thanks. I'm solid on what the terms mean re
>>> the Internet and the US telecom policy, just looking for what "the
>>> source" is at WTO so I can address what WTO's doing on their terms.
>>> It doesn't seem that there's really a subject-specific cite because
>>> WTO doesn't really deal with what these terms mean for the Internet.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Jean-Jacques Sahel
>>> <jean-jacques.sahel at icann.org> wrote:
>>>> See this WTO December 2014 update on methodology regarding trade statistics: http://webservices.wto.org/resources/meta/def_method_e.pdf and in particular:
>>>>
>>>> (i) communications services includes telecommunications, postal and courier services. Telecommunications services encompasses the transmission of sound, images or other information by telephone, telex, telegram, radio and television cable and broadcasting, satellite, electronic mail, facsimile services etc., including business network services, teleconferencing and support services. It does not include the value of the information transported. Also included are cellular telephone services, Internet backbone services and on-line access services, including provision of access to the Internet.
>>>>
>>>> [..] (v) computer and information services is subdivided into computer services (hardware and software related services and data processing services), news agency services (provision of news, photographs, and feature articles to the media), and other information provision services (database services and web search portals)
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] On Behalf Of Seth Johnson
>>>> Sent: 04 March 2015 16:12
>>>> To: Nick Ashton-Hart
>>>> Cc: Eduardo Bertoni; Marilia Maciel; <,bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>,
>>>> Subject: Re: [bestbits] Net Neutrality - summary of FCC new rules
>>>>
>>>> Where should I look for those definitions at WTO - information service vs telecommunication service?
>>>>
>>>> I use the ISIC. But that's a breakdown of industries, not of those two categories.
>>>>
>>>> Not here:
>>>> https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/glossary_e/glossary_e.htm
>>>>
>>>> Or here (telecom, but not info service):
>>>> http://wtoterm.wto.org/multiterm/index.mto?locale=en
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Seth
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 10:24 AM, Nick Ashton-Hart <nashton at consensus.pro> wrote:
>>>>> These are all well-defined terms in the WTO agreement. Whatever you
>>>>> may think of trade policy, it would be wise at least to consider
>>>>> carefully these terms in the context of those definitions.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 4 Mar 2015, at 15:44, Eduardo Bertoni <ebertoni at alumni.gwu.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear Marilia,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for sharing this. I begun working on a short piece in Spanish
>>>>> with similar goals: explain the impact of the new rules. The FGV
>>>>> document is more than welcome.
>>>>>
>>>>> For the time being, my humble suggestion is this: for many people it
>>>>> is not clear the difference between "information services" and
>>>>> "telecommunications services". So I would suggest to explain that
>>>>> difference. The concept of "common carrier" might help.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best
>>>>>
>>>>> Eduardo
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:17 AM, Marilia Maciel
>>>>> <mariliamaciel at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The researchers from the Center for Technology and Society of FGV in
>>>>>> Rio de Janeiro have prepared a concise summary of FCC new rules that
>>>>>> might be useful. The communities in Brazil are very focused on the NN
>>>>>> debate since we engaged in a public consultation to further regulate
>>>>>> the net neutrality principle enshrined in the Brazilian Civil Rights
>>>>>> Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The document will be updated as more information is made available.
>>>>>> Comments and suggestions are more than welcome.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/12RPZvyWKWxQwg116H8L8hjsoNZqsxEjwF
>>>>>> 7KBfF-gjqo/edit?usp=sharing
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>>> CTS/FGV
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Marília Maciel
>>>>>> Pesquisadora Gestora - Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade - FGV Direito
>>>>>> Rio Researcher and Coordinator - Center for Technology & Society -
>>>>>> FGV Law School http://direitorio.fgv.br/cts
>>>>>>
>>>>>> DiploFoundation associate - www.diplomacy.edu PoliTICs Magazine
>>>>>> Advisory Committee - http://www.politics.org.br/ Subscribe "Digital
>>>>>> Rights: Latin America & the Caribbean" -
>>>>>> http://www.digitalrightslac.net/en
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ____________________________________________________________
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>>>>>
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>>>>>
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