Obama exhumes Net neutrality from the Tomb of Forgotten Issues

The debate over Net neutrality has quieted considerably since the Federal Communications Commission rebuked Comcast in August for its discriminatory handling of BitTorrent traffic. Congress has been silent on the issue as one of the leading proponents of Net neutrality, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), has focused on cap-and-trade legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The FCC is still awaiting confirmation of President Obama's pick for its chairman, Julius Genachowski, and has been preoccupied by the looming analog TV cutoff. The new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, has dropped hints about regulating broadband providers, but for the most part, whatever momentum that the Net neutrality drive had in 2007 and 2008 seems to have dissipated.

So when Obama brought up the issue today in a speech on cyber-security, it seemed like a bolt out of the blue. Here's the relevant excerpt:

"Let me also be clear about what we will not do. Our pursuit of cyber-security will not -- I repeat, will not include -- monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans. Indeed, I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we can keep the Internet as it should be -- open and free."

This isn't a change for Obama -- he strongly endorsed Net neutrality during the presidential campaign. And it's consistent with some elements of the cyber-security strategy he laid out today, which emphasized (in a striking contrast with the previous administration) protecting individual liberties and privacy along with critical digital infrastructure. On the other hand, such a regulatory impulse conflicted with another important tenet of Obama's cyber-security initiative: that private companies will be free to choose how to protect themselves. As Obama put it:

"The vast majority of our critical information infrastructure in the United States is owned and operated by the private sector.  So let me be very clear: My administration will not dictate security standards for private companies. On the contrary, we will collaborate with industry to find technology solutions that ensure our security and promote prosperity."

At any rate, it looks like the Net neutrality debate may be revving up again. Let the lobbying begin!

Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

Comments

[ZeroCool]

This is our world now. The world of the electron and the switch; the beauty of the baud. We exist without nationality, skin color, or religious bias. You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try and make us believe that it is for our own good, yet we are the criminals. Yes I am a criminal.

My crime is that of curiosity. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop me, but you can't stop us all -Hackers

[Julie Miller Harding]

"Safe Public Web Act of 2007"
Written By: Julie Miller Harding (c) 02-17-07

The human mind is the genius and the inventor of technology. As our minds continue to advance, (with technology at their side,) such as they have over the millions of years of human development; our world will become overwhelmed with computerization and robotics, even more so than it already is today. Since we hold the honor of man's genius being the inventor of the computerized era, it is our duty and responsibility as Americans to set the necessary boundaries that will provide the innumerable amounts of areas of public safety that our world needs today, due to the absolutely countless areas of accessibility that the internet provides.

As the leading nation of our world, where do we start with this large and dangerous chore? We have tried to set boundaries for the internet, but with the search engines and "mega" search engines that are available today, these boundaries are almost impossible to enforce. The public has always responded, demanding their "Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom of Thought." Yes, it is true; freedom of thought and speech are both very, very important aspects of the American democracy. Yet, when someone uses their freedoms of thought and/or speech to manipulate and/or control another human mind, then this person is using their gifts of freedom, and must be approached and/or punished.

There is a very important rule that we must live by today: "If it isn't legal for us in the public physically, then do not allow it online.” What would happen to me if I walked out into the middle of the street, shouting out lessons of computer hacking while selling pictures of beastiality? It is safe to believe that I would at least be arrested for disturbing the peace. If it isn't legal in the public physically, why should we allow it online? Now, this doesn't mean that our public will lose all of it's computer privacy. Watching naked woman dance at bars is legal in public, and there are parental controls for these sites. Yet there is a very fine line. Having sex in the open public is not legal. It is too dangerous for psychologically ill people to be online handling themselves while chatting with children. Taking the time to reinforce teaching parents just how much their children have access to and how to use their parental controls on their computers is just as imperative.

The internet has become more public to our world today than the streets that we walk upon. Therefore, it must be treated as such. Anything at all which is illegal for us in our physical public, must now be illegal in the public that has now become multi-national and accessible to all. We have no choice today but to sift through every site that is now available to not just Americans, but to the entire world and decide if these sites meet the requirements of public safety, legality and respectability; to maintain the continued right of public exposure.

"It is our job as the leading nation of this world, to accept this long and tedious chore, for the future and safety of our next millennium.

"What we do today, will save tomorrow."

"Every man today knoweth the truth of this pain: Safety must come before greed."

05-29-2009

Signed:______________________________________________

[Craig R. Lane]

While There is a lower class,
I am in it.
While there is a criminal elemant,
I am of it.
While there is a soul in prison,
I am not free!
~Eugene Debs

Yeah,
Obama was for single payer healthcare, until he was against it/got elected. Don't hold your breath and believe that what he says here means anything.

[sergei]

hey ZeroCool, that quote was actually taken from a short "essay" if you will, by Lloyd Blankenship, its very interesting, I think everyone should read it, here's the link:
http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=7&id=3&mode=txt