[governance] Re: Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic

[Lee McKnight]

Hi,

On that note of transparency (or lack thereof) from Internet providers
in the US and elsewhere, I agree consumers/users should demand more.  

Bill Lehr of MIT and I wrote a paper in Info maybe 6 years ago called
'Show me the Money: Towards Consumer Service Level Agreement Markets;'
where we erroneously predicted consumers would wise up long ago and
demand accurate information on how their packets are treated.

But fact is the providers say 'actual speeds may vary' in their fine
print and if one isn't willing/able to pay business prices, that's all
you get.  

On other hand, this has little to do with 'net neutrality' per se, is
really an issue of 'truth in advertising.'   In my opinion.

Maybe a call for transparency as Karl suggests could be a general
principle that
could even be part, of, oh I don't know, an Internet governance
framework? ; )

All opposing transparency raise your hand? See, the ayes have it.

Lee
Prof. Lee W. McKnight
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
+1-315-443-6891office
+1-315-278-4392 mobile
>>> bortzmeyer at internatif.org 10/23/07 7:10 PM >>>
On Tue, Oct 23, 2007 at 06:43:18PM -0400,
 Avri Doria <avri at psg.com> wrote 
 a message of 44 lines which said:

> what happens i wonder if they start to sell a cheaper level of
> service that includes the right for them to limit traffic they
> consider detrimental to the business model

In the real Comcast case, they did not even confirm the trick against
BitTorrent, although it widely reported, with detailed
observations. If an access provider were honest about these policies,
it would already be a step in the right direction.

> - sometimes i think they have a right to sell me anything and if i
> am stupid enough to buy, my loss.

As long as they document it, following RFC 4084.

4084 Terminology for Describing Internet Connectivity. J. Klensin. May
     2005. (Format: TXT=24522 bytes) (Also BCP0104) (Status: BEST
CURRENT
     PRACTICE)
http://www.ietf.org/4084.txt

AFAIK, not one of the access providers which sell some form of
"limited Internet" abide by the RFC 4084. Transparency should not only
be for ICANN, but also for the access providers.
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