Tech Policy Summit blog

British ISPs Agree To Landmark Copyright Enforcement Deal

Following negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), six major Internet service providers in the UK have signed a memorandum of understanding with British music industry group BPI and the Motion Picture Association to curb illegal peer-to-peer file sharing significantly within two to three years. 

The agreement is particularly significant because it marks the first time that ISPs will be "required to work with music and other rights holders" to fight digital piracy. The ISPs, which include BSkyB, BT, Virgin, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Tiscali, will launch a pilot program that begins by sending warning letters to individuals that have been identified as suspected copyright infringers.

British telecom regulator Ofcom has been charged with overseeing the process and working with the parties to develop and approve a Code of Practice within four months that determines what actions should be taken against alleged "repeat offenders," i.e. suspension or cancellation of users' Internet accounts or criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, while the British government says it prefers voluntary industry-led efforts, BERR is continuing to explore what it calls a co-regulatory approach that could lead to legislation. Among the regulatory options being considered by the government are:

• Requiring ISPs to provide personal data relating to a given IP address to rights holders on request, without them needing to go to Court.
• Requiring ISPs to take direct action against users who are identified by the rights holder as infringing copyright through file sharing.
• Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment that will block infringing content, or requiring ISPs themselves to install such filtering equipment.
• Allocating a third party body to consider evidence provided by rights holders and to direct ISPs to take action against individual users as required, or to take action directly against individual users.

BERR is seeking comment on the proposed options between now and October 30th; more information can be found in the consultation document released by the government. The 66-page PDF is available for download here.

p.s. We've previously written these posts about ISPs in the U.S. cooperating with the entertainment industry to police for copyright violations.

President Signs E-911 Bill Into Law

President Bush signed the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 yesterday, enacting into law several measures designed to ensure better Enhanced-911 services for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers and to work toward a national IP-enabled emergency network.

VON coalition founder Jeff Pulver, who's been a long-time backer of IP technologies for voice and video, celebrated it as "hugely important legislation" in a post on his blog. Below is an excerpt that explains the bill's impact on the VoIP industry and what Pulver believes it means for 911 services going forward:

This is the first major piece of telecommunications legislation signed into law this year -- and it happens to be a bill designed to help advance VoIP.

The bill provides tools that the FCC failed to provide 3 years ago when first adopting rules for VoIP 911. Even without these tools, VoIP providers have made extraordinary efforts and now provide E911 to a greater percentage of subscribers than any other kind of voice service. Its been the fastest and broadest onetime implementation of E-911 in the history of public safety. As a result of these unprecedented effort by VoIP providers, Americans who dial 911 using interconnected VoIP services can now rest assured they can reach help in an emergency. It is a particularly remarkable achievement considering that no underlying network connectivity provider can yet offer VoIP providers the ability to connect to all selective routers nationwide. This bill now gives VoIP providers a chance to expand their base, and VoIP consumers assurances that they can be safe and secure using a dependable VoIP service.

But more importantly, thanks to the work of the VON Coalition, the bill also recognizes that when we put VoIP at the heart of the 911 network itself, we can achieve breakthrough new advancements in emergency service for all Americans -- regardless of the type of service you use. It's no secret that America's 911 network is still providing 911 and E911 today using 1960s-era technology. The bill calls for a new national strategy for upgrading the nation's entire 911 network from 1960s era technology to 21st century IP and VoIP technologies at its core to help make Americans more safe and secure.

You can read more of his post here, and the text of the legislation is available here.

Verizon Wireless Pays $21M To Settle ETF Case

According to the Associated Press, Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $21 million to settle a California lawsuit brought by a group of customers who were charged early termination fees to cancel their cellphone contracts.

The details are still being worked out, so it's unclear how many Verizon customers will be eligible for a cut of the settlement money. Similar suits are pending in California against Sprint and AT&T.

You might remember that not that long ago we pointed to another AP story about the Verizon Wireless' proposal to the Federal Communications Commission that called for prorating and capping early termination fees and offering mandatory grace periods for customer cancellations.  Several wireless carriers, including Verizon Wireless, have taken steps on their own to implement these types of changes in hopes of avoiding regulatory and legal action.

EU Parliament's Telecom Reform Raises "Three-Strikes" Concerns

According to BBC News, members of the European Parliament voted yesterday in favor of advancing new telecom reform legislation known as the Telecoms Package that includes a series of controverisal amendments that digital rights activists say would pave the way for a 'three-strikes' law against online copyright infringers in Europe.

MEP Malcolm Harbour, a key backer of the Telecoms Package, dismissed that idea, telling BBC that the amendments "have nothing to do with copyright enforcement. The interpretation of them is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights."

Opponents, led by a French group called La Quadrature du Net, warn that the legislation designed to harmonize Europe's telecom laws would instead threaten the openness of the Internet by requiring ISPs to give individuals suspected of downloading unauthorized copyright material two warnings before cutting off their Net access entirely. Another organization, Free Internet Infrastructure (FFII), went a step further, saying that a provision that would give the government the power to determine what type of software can be used online (and what can't) would lead to a "Soviet Internet" in Europe.

The European Parliament will vote on the legislation in September.

For more, read the full BBC article here.

Clearwire 2.0 Renews WiMAX Push

It's official...Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are joining forces to create a new -- and, they hope, improved -- wireless broadband company under the Clearwire brand.

After a rocky partnership that was put on hold last November with the announcement that the two had ended their agreement to develop a nationwide WiMAX network, Sprint and Clearwire are once again on the WiMAX bandwagon together. And they're not alone.

The "new" Clearwire has help in the form of a $3.2 billion investment from Intel, Comcast, Google, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. According to the Associated Press, the deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter with Clearwire founder Craig McCaw serving as chairman and the chief execs of Sprint, Time Warner Cable and Comcast getting board seats. Clearwire's CEO is Benjamin Wolff and Sprint's CTO Barry West will serve as president (Sprint Nextel will have a 51% equity stake in the company). 

AP reports that Clearwire's targeting 120 million to 140 million U.S. customers by the end of 2010.

UPDATE: Google, which contributed $500 million to the new venture and will partner to offer apps and services to Clearwire customers, has high hopes for its investment. In a post on the company blog this morning, Googler Larry Adler explains: "As we've supported open standards for spectrum and wireless handsets, we're especially excited that Clearwire intends to build and maintain a network that will embrace important openness features."

News From Who's Who

Below is a quick roundup of recent press releases from Tech Policy Central's Who's Who, which profiles nearly 100 think tanks, coalitions and trade associations.

• Net neutrality adovcate group Free Press published the testimony of its policy director Ben Scott, who was among the witnesses at this morning's net neutrality hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Mr. Scott joined NCTA chief Kyle McSlarrow, RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol, Christian Coalition vice president Michele Combs and others who appeared before the Subcommittee to discuss Chairman Ed Markey's (D-MA) proposed bill, H.R. 5353, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008. We shared brief notes from the hearing via Twitter.

• In response to today's hearing on H.R. 5353, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a statement by its technology policy analyst Cord Blomquist opposing the proposed net neutrality bill. According to Mr. Blomquist, "this bill does more than prohibit bad actions that will never happen. It also prevents ISPs from employing sensible network management that is vital for addressing the growing demands of Internet users."

(Not) Live Blogging from FCC's Stanford Hearing

Live blogging has its merits but isn't our usual Tech Policy Central fare. So, with modest delays, we will be posting updates on today's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing on broadband network management practices. Welcome remarks are underway and the first panel will start soon. Instructions on how to get audio and video of the hearing is available at the FCC's site.

Here are some notes from FCC chairman Kevin Martin's introductory remarks:

--Thanked everyone at Stanford Law School and the Center for Internet and Society for hosting today's hearing and all of the panelists for participating. Pointed out that Silicon Valley represents some of the best of American ingenuity and its entrepreneurial spirit is critical as we're trying to debate network neutrality principles. Wanted to make sure that he's clear before we start today's panels that it is important that we hear from a variety of different folks. The FCC did reach out to the carriers, including Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and all declined to speak at the Stanford hearing. FCC reached out to Comcast and Pando Networks again after they announced their P2P bill of rights and they declined.  The Commission did try to make this as open and transparent as possible. Several of the carriers suggested individuals to participate today and they are involved in the panels.

Looking Back at the 700 MHz Auction

Hindsight may be 20/20, but that doesn't mean lawmakers and regulators are seeing eye to eye when it comes to assessing the outcome of the 700 MHz auction. In fact, one of the few points that everyone seemed to agree on at yesterday's Congressional oversight hearing was that the public safety D block auction was a disappointment.

Figuring out what to do with the D block spectrum going forward? Not as much agreement.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, opened the hearing by describing the recently completed auction as "the best of auctions and the worst of auctions simultaneously."

He congratulated the five FCC commissioners, all of whom were present to testify, for the auction's $19.6 billion haul and for the successful sale of the C block (Rep. Markey was among those pushing for the C-block's open access rules). However, like others at the hearing, he was disappointed that there wasn't a buyer for the D block.

Rep. Markey was also critical of the auction's two biggest winners, AT&T and Verizon, saying "the wireless third pipe to compete with the telephone and cable industry is proving either elusive or simply allied with one of the two existing providers in much of the country. This is too cozy and not nearly competitive enough."

For his part, ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) was less enthusiastic about the total amount raised, citing a study by the Brattle Group that suggested the government could have netted billions more if the auction rules had been structured differently.  Rep. Stearns also made news when he said companies like Google got a 'free ride' because of the open access rules.

As for the question of how to best reauction the D block? A variety of suggestions were proposed, including lowering the reserve price and modifying the build-out requirements, but the issue is far from resolved.

For more info, you can check out write-ups by RCR Wireless News and The Wall Street Journal (sub required), and you can download an archived Webcast at the House's Web site.

FCC's Stanford Hearing: Is This Just A Beginning?

In advance of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) next hearing on broadband network management practices, which will be held Thursday on the Stanford campus, professor/blogger Susan Crawford has written a post called "Retrograde Inversion" in which she contends that the FCC is asking the wrong question.

She writes:

"What is reasonable network management" isn't the question we should be asking. Instead, we should be asking ourselves "Why do the dominant network operators always win?" We don't need retrospective fault-allocation - instead, we need a prospective legislative/structural plan for digging ourselves out of the hole we're in...

So even if the Commission says something sharp to Comcast about what practices amount to reasonable network management, that will not be a victory. It will just be a beginning. We need a thoroughly revamped approach to communications law: a revised statute that treats internet access as the general communications network it was supposed to be (as the framers of communications law thought telephone networks should be); a revised approach to judicial review, embedded in that statute, that revitalizes the role of the courts in telecommunications law; and far better information about what network operators are actually doing. The entire post is available here.

In a twist of tech policy fate, Professor Crawford and Comcast exec Joe Waz recently participated in a roundtable discussion together at Tech Policy Summit about broadband innovation in the U.S. (along with M2Z Networks' founder Milo Medin and Ambassador Richard Russell of President's Office of Science and Technology Policy). You can listen to the podcast of that and other TPS '08 sessions.

Note: While Professor Crawford was on the advisory board for the 2008 Tech Policy Summit, she has no involvement in TechPolicyCentral.com and her opinions/writings are just that: her opinions/writings.

Global IT Rankings Out: Denmark Keeps Top Spot

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and INSEAD have released the results of the 2007-2008 Global Information Technology Report, its seventh annual Networked Readiness Index (NRI).

This year's report compared the IT capabilities of 127 economies around the world across 68 different variables, with Denmark and Sweden retaining the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for a second consecutive year. The United States, for its part, moved up a few notches to rank fourth overall, and Korea broke into the top ten.

Here's a quick look at this year's top 10; you can compare that to last year's list.

2007-2008 NRI

1. Denmark                                          
2. Sweden                                          
3. Switzerland 
4. United States
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Netherlands
8. Iceland
9. Korea
10. Norway

For more info, check out the video interview with WEF senior economist Irene Mia in the Media Vault. You can also read excerpts from the report on INSEAD's site, and Ars Technica's Nate Anderson has this analysis (others are far more skeptical).

As you may remember, we had planned to unveil the report at Tech Policy Summit on March 26th, but the WEF delayed the release date.