Updated on February 27, 2010 at 10:20 AM: Tim Karr has demanded a retraction with claims that he fact checked his piece.  Upon further review of his claims, and having offered Tim $1,000 for proof of my “deep ties” to Arts & Labs, I have decided to change the title of the post to indicate [...]

Free Press trivializes the very real plight of people who have to fear disappearing in the dead of night for criticizing a regime – all to make a political point in a policy fight.

However, there is a legitimate point to be explored in their over-the-top rhetoric. While Free Press would have you believe that your cable company bears some resemblance to totalitarian governments, the better comparison would be government-to-government.

I don’t know how many times the ridiculous argument that “charging for content won’t work” can be thrown out and still get traction. Let’s look at the history of “free” versus “pay” and see where it takes us.

By urging a move from non-discrimination to unreasonable discrimination, NARUC recognizes that “big dumb pipes” are a model for the Internet that was abandoned years ago. NARUC also realizes you cannot have a neutral internet if only one side of the content/access equation has to abide by those rules.

Following the announcement last week that Google is looking for community partners to develop a 1-gigabit test bed network, Om Malik asks, “Where Else In The World Can You Get 1 Gbps to the Home?” He points to a couple of rural telephone companies here in the US that are supposedly offering such service.  I [...]

Google accounts for 6% of all Internet traffic and has almost 86% of the search market. Google’s YouTube accounts for 10% of all mobile data and the company owns 3 of the top 10 websites on the Net, and 6 of the top 20. It would seem that a company with that much power getting into the ISP business should frighten the Free Press crowd. Not only would they control what you access online, and how you find it, but as an ISP they would control your very connection. Instead, they’re cheering the move.

Despite being a Boxee user and fan of the service, (I have been a user of both the Alpha and Beta clients for over a year) I have to call out Ronen for trying to be too clever by half. The fact is, Zucker has the more honest argument on this point. Boxee doesn’t, in fact, act just like a browser.

Telecom and tech bloggers were abuzz yesterday as Obama’s response to a question about net neutrality made it’s way through the ether. (video is embedded after the jump) The question, asked as part of the YouTube interview with the President, may have generated more controversy than intended.

ISPs shall make no policy respecting an establishment of order to network traffic, or prioritizing the VoIP, video or game traffic; or abridging the flow of P2P traffic, or the Hulu; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and illegally download copyrighted material.

Free Press spent a lot of words in their NPRM filing to argue that the FCC’s definition of reasonable network management practices was unreasonable. One of their kinder passages states: The Commission’s proposed definition is circular, ambiguous, and incomplete, and without further definition will create loopholes and result in future errors in policymaking. So what [...]