[governance] FW: [IP] BBC News - France tells internet service provider to end Google and other ads block

Tue Jan 8 13:38:13 EST 2013

Interesting sets of developments. 

And, (again) FWIW I should say that I would not wish my comments or posts to
be taken as "Google-bashing". 

As a company, Google's products have made huge contributions to global
well-being and dare I say, the global public interest. Including through
their pursuit of their mission to be the cataloguer (and ultimately portal)
through which the world organizes and accesses its information.  

That being said, and largely because of their success in the pursuit of
their mission and their effectiveness as a company they have become a
dominant agent in an area that I consider crucial to our collective global
well-being--the pursuit, organization and use of knowledge.  

It is precisely because of that success that they need to held to account
and scrutinized for their behaviours rather more than their lesser (and less
significant) corporate colleagues. 

As well, they are now one of a small set of companies with predominant
influence in the Internet economy and thus in the overall Internet ecology.
Again because of that predominant role they (like the other companies in
that ecology) need to be held to public account for their behaviours
ethical, as well as legal.

I think that it is our role and responsibility as civil society concerned
from a normative perspective with the overall "governance" of the Internet
to discuss and call out as necessary Google (and other similarly predominant
companies or governments or multilateral institutions or whoever) when their
actions or the effects of their actions would appear to be damaging or a
threat to the global public interest.  

Isn't this precisely what civil society should be doing?

Mike

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20943779

France tells internet service provider to end ads block

8 January 2013 Last updated at 12:59 GMT

Free signFree has argued that Google does not pay its fair share

A major French internet service provider (ISP) has agreed to abandon its
ad-blocking policy - seen as a swipe against Google - after a minister
intervened.

Digital Economy minister Fleur Pellerin said she persuaded Free to restore
full access to all content on the internet, including Google ads.

Free started blocking ads last week when it updated home router software.

It was seen as forcing Google to pay its fair share to service providers.

The French minister said: "No actor can jeopardise the digital ecosystem in
a unilateral way."

Free has argued in the past that Google does not pay its way when ISPs are
forced to increase investment in running services like YouTube, which take
up a lot of bandwidth.

Google's AdServe online advertising software - which allows online
businesses to target their audiences in exchange for a share of the
advertising profits - is used on many websites.

'Cuckoo bird'

Philippe Jannet, the former president of Geste, the French online publishers
association, said that when operators "see Google come in like a cuckoo bird
and make profit off the internet service they provide without receiving a
penny in return, it's normal that they get mad".

The move by Free - France's second biggest ISP with more than five million
subscribers - would have cost Google up to one million euros every day, a
source told news agency AFP.

"That's what would push the giant to speak to the little operator," he
added.

Ms Pellerin said she did not have an estimate yet of the financial impact
from the fallout. She has scheduled a meeting with Google about Free's
actions.

A Free spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.

Google spokesman Al Verney said: "We are aware of Free's actions and are
investigating their impact."

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