?Despite Google and Verizon?s claims to support an open Internet, the two page policy proposal removes any hope of moving forward with the open Internet as we know it. Specifically, five sentences would offer corporations the ability to do almost anything they would like. Anything ranges from throttling traffic to blocking websites to prioritizing some content over other content.
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There has been an incredible amount of mud-slinging and hand-wringing over a perceived back office deal by Google and Verizon, both of whom, if you listen to most reports, are hell-bent on destroying the Internet for their own gains. Thanks for that, New York Times. Google and Verizon, however, are finally speaking out on the issue with more than adamant denials of the Times’ piece and the related media frenzy.
ZDNet’s Sam Diaz reported this afternoon on a post on Google’s public policy blog today where Alan Davidson, Google director of public policy and Tom Tauke, Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications described the real aim of their talks. In fact, as Sam noted, they’re going farther than merely discussing. The two companies actually proposed a legislative framework to ensure ongoing openness while ensuring optimal use of limited broadband resources.
According to the blog post describing the framework,
…in addition to these existing principles there should be a new, enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices. This means that for the first time, wireline broadband providers would not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful Internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition…this new nondiscrimination principle includes a presumption against prioritization of Internet traffic - including paid prioritization. So, in addition to not blocking or degrading of Internet content and applications, wireline broadband providers also could not favor particular Internet traffic over other traffic.
Sounds kind of like the opposite of what MoveOn.org was circulating in their misinformed propaganda this weekend, doesn’t it? An email asking people to sign a petition to keep Google from doing anything untoward with their online power contained the following passage:
But today’s news stories report that under the new deal, Verizon could be allowed to give some sites preferential treatment. Even more ominously, it appears that Verizon would have free rein to discriminate on the mobile Internet (smartphones, cell phones, etc). Since that’s where most people will access the Net going forward, this would essentially spell the end of Net Neutrality.
Nice. Obviously, both Google and Verizon have extraordinarily vested interests in making sure that the Internet, as a commerce and communications platform, works favorably for them and their customers. However, as eWeek’s Wayne Rash points out, Net neutrality and smart traffic shaping don’t have to be mutually exclusive:
In either case [voice or video over the Internet], reliable delivery is important for these services to be usable. Google’s belief, according to a statement made by CEO Eric Schmidt during an impromptu news conference on Aug. 4, is that network providers should be able to differentiate service types so that voice traffic gets delivered intact, for example, but not prioritize one provider’s voice or video over another’s.
