The New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government is holding public hearings today on the subject of Net Neutrality.

A live stream of the hearings is available on LiveStream. The Council is live Tweeting coverage as well here. Also look for hashtags #netneutrality or #reso712A.

Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer Mercurio gave testimony earlier today in support of Net Neutrality.

A sample of her testimony:

ECA is strongly in support the proposals you’ve outlined in Resolution 712A-2007 and of the concept of Network Neutrality, the principle that protects one’s choice of content and equal opportunity on the Internet. Like President Obama, who has pledged to make Network Neutrality the law of the land, we believe that Network Neutrality is a key right for consumers, insuring continued enjoyment and use of the Internet for a variety of applications including recreation, creativity and economic expansion.  This is especially true for video game players (gamers), because our hobby is increasingly tied to the Internet.  Of the 117 million active gamers in the US, 56 percent play games online, accounting for over 65 million Americans.

Disclosure: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics

A reddit user has created a striking visual representation of what *could* happen if net neutrality laws are shot down.

The image is based tiered pricing plans that some cable and Internet companies currently offer (lending, perhaps, an increased measure of reality to the illustration) and imagines, for example, websites such as Hulu and YouTube as part of a "Hollywood Tier," available for $10 over the price paid for basic Internet service.

More relevant here is the rendering of a “Playground” tier that includes Valve’s Steam platform, World of Warcraft, Gametap, Electronic Arts and Real Arcade, offered for a $5 surcharge. Yikes!

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski praising proposed Net Neutrality rules.

The letter, which was also copied to the FCC’s four Commissioners, notes the key reasons the Net Neutrality movement is important to gamers:

• Popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) games such as Activision-Blizzard’s World of Warcraft hosts more than eleven million users worldwide;
• Both Xbox Live® and PlayStation Network® connect over 46 million console users in the United States and abroad in hundreds of games online; and
• Well-liked gaming websites like Kongregate, PlayFirst, Pogo.com and PopCap Games also serve hundreds of millions of users on their web browsers.

A section of the letter also touched on the rights of wireless gamers:

The iPhone App Store and other wireless providers are selling thousands of games to consumers on their phones, but are also urging that principals of Net Neutrality should not apply to them. From a gamer’s perspective, wireless providers must be treated the same as any other service provider to insure the same gaming experiences exist across platforms.

Noting that “more troubling behavior in the marketplace” has become more common—such as “deep packet” inspection by Internet service providers—ECA Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer Mercurio wrote:

The ECA asks that the FCC take action now to affirmatively safeguard the free flow of information on the Internet before it’s too late.

Full Disclosure: GamePolitics is a publication of The ECA

Yesterday, The Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) five commissioners voted unanimously to move ahead with the discussion on Net Neutrality.

While all five commissioners approved the move, the two Republican members (Robert McDowell and Meredith Attwell Baker) indicated that, while they think further exploration is a good idea, they don’t think regulations will ultimately be needed.

McDowell was quoted in a Washington Post website as saying:

Today we do disagree on substance. I do not agree with the majority’s view that the Internet is showing breaks and cracks and that the government ... needs to fix it. Nonetheless it is important to remember that the commission is starting a process, not ending one.

Senator John McCain expressed his displeasure with the Net Neutrality movement as well. PC World reports that McCain introduced his own Internet Freedom Act, which would “expressly prohibit the FCC from making rules on net neutrality in the simplest terms.” McCain thinks Net Neutrality will affect the job market and stifle competition.

The Net Neutrality movement will now record comments until January 14, 2010 and subsequent reply comments until March 14, 2010.

An AT&T executive sent a memo to employees asking that they and their families contribute to the company's fight against Net Neutrality.

In the memo Senior Executive Vice President James Cicconi urged those participating to hide their company affiliation and use personal email addresses when posting anti-Net Neutrality comments on the OpenInternet.gov website.

Cicconi also provided a list of talking points for those taking part in the action reports SaveTheInternet.com. Among the points:

America's wireless consumers enjoy the broadest range of innovative services and devices, lowest prices, highest usage levels, and most choices in the world. Why disrupt a market that's working so well?

All five points presented by Cicconi can be seen here, but it appears the main post has been edited and Cicconi’s name has been changed.

Tim Carr, Campaign Director for Free Press and author of the piece on SaveTheInternet, took AT&T to task:

By pressuring the company’s employees to pose as average citizens and post AT&T talking points, Cicconi is asking them to be doubly deceptive. Not only are they asked to hide their true identities but also to spread misinformation on behalf of a company that seems to be getting more desperate by the day.

Count the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) among those who back the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) stance and newly added principles on net neutrality.

Noting that the ECA is “delighted” with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “aggressive stance,” the ECA’s Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer Mercurio commented:

Increasingly, Americans spend much more time on the Internet – they take care of business and pursue their hobbies, like playing video games, all of which fuel our economy, and they should not be penalized for it.

To advance the cause of net neutrality, the ECA has added an action item to its website that allows users to email their Representative or Senators in support of the FCC’s position.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

As might be expected, reactions to today’s speech from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski are appearing, with feedback varying wildly depending on which side of the fence the comments come from.

Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), co-author of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, praised Genachowski’s announcement, stating:

This is a significant step towards preserving the free and open nature that has enabled the Internet to become a platform for innovation, job-creation and economic growth. I hope the full Commission follows Chairman Genachowski’s lead in this vital effort.

PCMag has reaction from Senator Kay Bailey  (R-TX), who, it was noted, added an amendment to an Interior Appropriations bill that seeks to ban the FCC from spending funds to formulate and apply regulatory changes:

I am deeply concerned by the direction the FCC appears to be heading. These new regulatory mandates and restrictions could stifle investment incentives.

Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, whose company has battled with the FCC over network management policies in the past, took to his company’s blog to comment on today’s action:

We welcome the dialogue suggested by the Chairman in his comments, and we completely agree that any consideration of new “rules of the road” begin with notice and an open, public rulemaking proceeding – this is both fair and appropriate.

An article on CNET further details the initial reactions and stance of the wireless industry in regards to Genachowski’s comments. In a nutshell, some carriers, along with CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association, do not want net neutrality laws extended to wireless service providers.

As promised, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski today gave a speech in which he offered up two fresh principles of net neutrality he would like to see addressed in the National Broadband Plan.

The speech (full text here), entitled “Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity,” was given at The Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. Genachowski began by extolling the virtues of an open Internet and referencing the ability of young entrepreneurs, such as the founders of eBay, Facebook and Netscape, to take advantage of the open architecture and create innovative businesses.

He outlined the four Internet principles that currently guide the FCC’s enforcement of communication laws: “Network operators cannot prevent users from accessing the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching non-harmful devices to the network.”

Genachowski then introduced two additional principles he would like to see adopted as Commission rules: The fifth principle of non-discrimination, which states that “broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications,” and the sixth principle of transparency, which states that “providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices.”

Noting that his “fundamental goal” is “preserving the openness and freedom of the Internet,” Genachowski added:

This is not about government regulation of the Internet. It’s about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the Internet. We will do as much as we need to do, and no more, to ensure that the Internet remains an unfettered platform for competition, creativity, and entrepreneurial activity.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to detail a new proposal today that will feature rules for how Internet service providers manage and route traffic on their networks.

The proposal, which is expected to advance with three out of five votes from the FCC, will be announced by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (pictured) and is likely to include two new guidelines for dictating how companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter Communications treat different packets and applications on their networks.

The Washington Post reports that the FCC is expected to vote on the new rules in October, possibly culminating in a final rule in the spring of 2010.

An FCC source told the paper:
 

Be they entrepreneurs or innovators or consumers or less powerful voices, a principle on transparency is about knowing how large carriers manage traffic on networks and understanding how their content will be treated ahead of time so no one is surprised. So a CTO of a fledging start-up isn't shocked when a new product that got angel investment won't actually work on the Time Warner system, for example.

Computerworld speculates that the raging battle over health-care reform taking place in the United States Congress could push out any technology-related bills until 2010.

Some of the bills scheduled to be addressed this year that could be delayed to 2010 include:

• The Cybersecurity Act – A bill introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) that would allow the President to cut off or limit Internet traffic during cyber emergencies. A sticking point of this bill is that the President’s power over private networks is still undefined.

• Data-Breach Notification – These proposed bills would require companies or government agencies that suffer a cyber-related breach of security to notify people affected.  As 45 states already have breach notification laws, some experts are questioning the need for a national one.

• Internet Freedom Preservation Act – A bill introduced by Representative Ed Markley (D-MA) that seeks to require the Federal Communications Commission to create net neutrality rules. The bill notes that, “The national economy would be severely harmed if the ability of Internet content, service, and application providers to reach consumers was frustrated by interference from broadband telecommunications network operators.”

In response to a Federal Communications Commission Public Notice seeking comments on how the term “broadband” should be defined, AT&T labeled gaming as an “aspirational” online service.

While basic web-browsing capabilities and email were termed core services in the brief dated August 31, 2009, gaming was lumped in with streaming video and real-time voice services. AT&T noted:

…for Americans who today have no terrestrial broadband service at all, the pressing concern is not the ability to engage in real-time, two-way gaming, but obtaining meaningful access to the Internet’s resources and to reliable email communications and other basic tools that most of the country has come to expect as a given.

The Entertainment Software Association replied to the FCC on September 9, 2009, taking umbrage with AT&T’s comments. Kenneth L. Doroshow, The ESA’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel stated:

Online video games are a meaningful part of our participative culture. They remove geographic barriers, connecting people from across the country and around the world. They teach cooperation, cultivate leadership skills, and empower users to express their creativity. Increasingly, games are used for training purposes and to educate students about complex social issues. Entertaining does not mean trivial.

The Entertainment Consumers Association is urging gamers to stand up and be counted for Net Neutrality.

In an e-mail circulated yesterday, the ECA issued a call to action:

Now is the time for you to stand up for your rights and join millions of Americans of every political persuasion in the fight for Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is the principle that ensures that gamers are free to go where they want, do what they like, and connect with whom they choose onlin. Congressmen Ed Markey (D-MA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have introduced H.R. 3458, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.

Take action now and tell Congress to make Net Neutrality the law of the land. Without Net Neutrality, your Internet Service Provider is free to: charge you extra for playing World of Warcraft, to interfere with Xbox Live, or to completely shut off your ability to access for favorite web sites. Net Neutrality effects your entire online experience...

This is our best chance yet in making sure that Net Neutrality is passed by Congress. The head of the FCC supports it, the President of the United States supports it, and we're asking you to make sure to tell Congress you support it. Take a moment to send them the message to make Net Neutrality the law.

A suggested letter to Congressional representatives is available from the ECA website.

GP: Gamers, this issue may not inflame passions in the same way that the censorship debate does, but it's just as important in the long run.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

On Thursday, April 30th Entertainment Consumers Association president Hal Halpin will speak at the Triangle Game Conference in Raleigh, NC.

Hal's presentation is billed as a conversation with Russ Pitts of The Escapist. The format sounds similar to Hal's well-received appearance with Spike TV's Geoff Keighley at PAX 08. The conference listing indictates that Hal will discuss:

The future of games as a media and a business, the role of the Electronic Consumers Association and the many key issues facing consumers today, including DRM, Net Neutrality, the economy and the ESRB.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

Congress is currently considering President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, a measure which contains some extra goodies for gamers and Internet users.

Because Net Neutrality and Universal Broadband provisions contained in the bill will stimulate the online gaming experience, the Entertainment Consumers Association is providing gamers with an easy way to let their elected officials in Washington, D.C. know that they support the stimulus package.

To that end, the ECA has launched an action campaign at its website. Members and non-members alike can use the page to send a letter urging their congressional representatives to get behind the stimulus legislation. From the ECA site:

Net Neutrality and Universal Broadband are not only great for America; they allow us to play the games we want at high speeds!

Now is the time to act and let our voices be heard.  The new stimulus package... would provide for $2.8 billion in grants to develop broadband connections in underserved and rural populations... the bill also requires that any infrastructure built with the grant money has "open access basis" which would be defined by the new administration's FCC, but which seems to mirror Network Neutrality guidelines...

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission seems like a win for gamers and online businesses, among others.

As Ars Technica reports, Julius Genachowski (left) is a proponent of Net Neutrality (and if you're not sure why that's important to gamers check out the ECA's Gamers For Net Neutrality advocacy page). Genachowski is also said to be against media consolidation.

Ars Technica quotes Josh Silver of media reform group Free Press on Genachowski:

Under Julius Genachowski's leadership, the FCC's compass would point toward the public interest.

Meanwhile, Steve Augustino, a Washington, D.C. attorney who works with Net Neutrality issues, praised Genachowski:

Genachowski was a senior advisor to former FCC chairman Reed Hundt in the 1990s and went on to an Internet business career afterward.  He was leading Obama's Technology Working Group prior to this designation.  This is very good news for Internet-based businesses.  The FCC will have a chair that understands your issues.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

The co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama's FCC transition team is a World of Warcraft geek.

That word comes by way of GigaOm, where Wagner James Au writes that Wharton Prof. Kevin Werbach (left), a Net Neutrality advocate is steering the Obama team's takeover of the FCC (presumably between WoW raids).

In fact, Werbach belongs to a pair of WoW guilds. He wrote of his gaming in a 2006 blog post:

I play Warcraft because it’s fun. It’s taking time away from watching TV, reading books, and other entertainment pursuits. But I’m also playing because I believe MMOGs will be one of the primary forms of social software for the next decade. Defined broadly, they may become the dominant form of social software. And you can’t understand games without experiencing them first-hand...

 

What [WoW] does is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production. Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world...

As Au notes, Werbach's WoW experience is a plus, since online gamers have a major stake in the Net Neutrality issue. Also of note, Werbach's co-chair, Michigan Prof. Susan Crawford, is an admirer of Second Life:

Professor Crawford, a board member at ICANN, also counts herself “a huge fan of Second Life” for the way it lets users retain IP rights to their content (though she confesses to difficulty when it comes to moving her SL avatar around.)

GP: We're dying to know - does Werbach play Horde or Alliance?

Click To Play

On Saturday at PAX, Entertainment Consumers Association president Hal Halpin and Spike TV's Geoff Keighley veered from the typical panel format by offering a "casual conversation."

For the better part of an hour Hal and Geoff discussed a variety of topics of importance to gamers. Hal also took a number of questions from attendees.

We've got the video, and it's worth checking out...

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

Worried that your ISP is choking your bandwidth?

Then jump over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has released Switzerland, a free tool with which users can "test the integrity" of their Internet connection. Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, remarked:

The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs interfering with your Internet connection. It's up to concerned Internet users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort. Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit.

Peter Eckersley, EFF Staff Technologist and designer of Switzerland, added:

Until now, there hasn't been a reliable way to tell if somebody -- a hacker, an ISP, corporate firewall, or the Great Firewall of China -- is modifying your Internet traffic en route. The few tests available have been for narrow and specific kinds of interference, or have required tremendous amounts of advanced forensic labor. Switzerland is designed to make general-purpose ISP testing faster and easier.

Switzerland is described as an open source, command-line tool which will sniff out whether your ISP has modified or injected packets of data in your connection.

Via: boingboing

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), who both outraged and amused Net Neutrality advocates with his 2006 assertion that the Internet was a series of tubes, is reportedly now facing a series of federal allegations.

As reported by MarketWatch:

Sen. Ted Stevens has been indicted on criminal charges related to his business dealings in his home state, the Justice Department is expected to announce Tuesday.

 

Stevens, 84 years old... is up for reelection this year and has served in the Senate for 40 years... Last year, USA Today reported that federal agents searched Stevens's Alaska residence as part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation.

 

Stevens faces seven counts of false statements involving VECO, the oil services company in Alaska, and the renovations done on his home...

Is Net Neutrality an important issue for gamers?

You bet.

If you're not sure why, check out Every Time You Vote Against Net Neutrality, Your ISP Kills a Night Elf, which explains how online gaming will suffer if the big telecommunications firms win and Net Neutrality loses.

That's why the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has joined with the SaveTheInternet coalition and is backing Net Neutrality legislation proposed by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA).

For gamers, the stakes are indeed high. So high, apparently, that Comcast, which opposes Net Neutrality, hired people off the street to fill seats (see pic) at a recent FCC hearing on the issue. The tactic prevented some opposition voices from gaining access. As reported by Conde Nast Portfolio:
 

Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early and hold places in the queue for local Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing. Some of those placeholders, however, did more than wait in line: They filled many of the seats at the meeting... As a result, scores of Comcast critics and other members of the public were denied entry because the room filled up well before the beginning of the hearing...

Some audience members appeared to sleep through the proceedings... Other applauded enthusiastically when Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen delivered key points in his presentation.

Free Press spokesman Craig Aaron criticized Comcast's actions:
 

The sad thing about this is that literally hundreds of people who were not paid to stand in line, or paid by their employer to attend, were prevented from even entering the building.

Added Free Press campaign director Timothy Karr:
 

The only reason these people were in the room, it seemed to me, was to keep seats warm and exclude others.

The Consumerist has more.

Full Disclosure Dept: The Entertainment Consumers Association is the parent company of GamePolitics.