Throttling web traffic is a good thing: Bell Canada

wired blog: “Bell Canada, the largest telecom provider in Canada, argues that throttling — the practice of slowing down web speeds for “bandwidth hogs” — ultimately improves the user experience and stokes innovation.” Of course this comes after Bell was lambasted for throttling, do you think Bell would be so forthcoming about all the benefitsContinue reading “Throttling web traffic is a good thing: Bell Canada”

Paranoia or real reason to panic: the death of “free” internet

According to an article on American Free Press, Canadian ISPs (Bell & Telus) are paving the way for a new pay-as-you-go cable inspired system that will be in place by 2010 and will serve as a model for the implementation of this system world-wide: “By 2012 ISPs all over the globe will reduce Internet accessContinue reading “Paranoia or real reason to panic: the death of “free” internet”

three strikes and you’re out: france

France is finally going through with its threat to impose a “three strikes and you’re out” policy when it comes to illegal downloading.  Offenders will have their be blocked from their ISP provider for up to a year.  This is certainly a good plan as there aren’t like a million ways to get around thisContinue reading “three strikes and you’re out: france”

Virgin plans to spy on users

Virgin Media plans to spy on users in order to curb illegal downloading. It will begin by sending letters to households suspected of hosting P2P files. This is a joint venture with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which has been pushing ISPs to implement a “three strikes and you’re out” rule when it comes toContinue reading “Virgin plans to spy on users”

Comcast’s blacklist

In order to fight what it deems as “network congestion”, Comcast is developing a way to slow down particularly heavy downloaders as opposed to all bittorrent users: “Comcast is starting to test new approaches to protecting its network from what it describes as congestion caused by a handful of customers who use far far moreContinue reading “Comcast’s blacklist”

Geist: France Says Canada Considering “Three Strikes and You’re Out” ISP Policy

Michael Geist blog: Last month I wrote about the pressure to adopt “graduated response,” a policy that is better described as “three strikes and you’re out” for ISP subscribers.  While Canada has yet to take a public position on the issue, a new French document cites Canada as an example of a country that isContinue reading “Geist: France Says Canada Considering “Three Strikes and You’re Out” ISP Policy”

Net Neutrality hearings at Stanford: too bad no ISPs showed up

Yesterday, the FCC held a second hearing in its investigation of Comcast’s use of forged RST packets to interfere with BitTorrent and other P2P applications. Free Press has a page linking to written testimony, statements, and audio and video recordings from the Stanford hearing. At the previous hearing at Harvard Law School, Comcast attracted criticismContinue reading “Net Neutrality hearings at Stanford: too bad no ISPs showed up”

FCC considers taking action (finally) against Comcast

CNet:  “The Federal Communications Commission is edging toward taking action against cable operator Comcast for monkeying with its customers’ peer-to-peer traffic, according to several news reports. On Friday FCC Chairman Kevin Martin indicated during a speech at Stanford University’s Law School that the commission may take action against the cable operator, which has been accusedContinue reading “FCC considers taking action (finally) against Comcast”

Bob McChesney on the FCC and net neutrality

Bob McChesney, keynote speaker at the Citizen Media Forum on November 3rd, discusses new FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to relax rules regarding media ownership at a public hearing tomorrow with the Minnesota Monitor as well as issues surrounding net neutrality. He cites as an example the Telus incident in Canada, pointing out that thereContinue reading “Bob McChesney on the FCC and net neutrality”