Larry Lessig on the recent Comcast order, via lessig.org:
FCC on Comcast: Bravo!
Free Press (and others) alleged that Comcast was blocking the BitTorrent application. We've known for sometime the result in this case (because of the weird practice of the FCC to release the results of an order without necessarily releasing the order). But at the crack of dawn (California time) today, the Commission released its 34 page order.
It is fantastically well done. So much so that I felt compelled (in that weird lawyer like way) to blather my own 5 pages of thanks in a letter to the Commission that will be mailed today.
An excerpt from Lessig's letter:
Ms. Marlene H. Dortch
Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington DC 20554
Re: Broadband Industry Practices, WC Docket No. 07-52Dear Ms. Dortch:
I am writing to commend the Commission on its order released
today regarding Comcast. In all of my experience reviewing government
decisions affecting the Internet, I have read none that are more subtle and
sophisticated in their understanding of the Internet, and few that are as
important for setting the conditions under which innovation and competition
on the Internet will flourish.As the Order makes clear, the Commission has clearly recognized
the importance of the Internet as a platform for technological growth and
innovation. It is also an extraordinarily important platform for free speech.
Innovation and technological growth are essential components to economic
prosperity. Free speech is the single most important element in a
democracy.Platforms depend upon common and public standards. The next
Larry Page or Sergey Brin need to know that the "Internet" they build the
next Google for is actually the "Internet" the next Google will run upon.
The open standards process that the IETF has developed provide this assurance.
By clearly articulating the rules by which data will be managed on
the Internet, innovators can build applications and deploy content that rely
upon those rules. There’s no need for a negotiation between innovators in
their garage and the largest network providers for those innovators to develop
the next "killer app." Like the electricity grid, innovators know that
they can simply plug their application into the Internet and -- so long as
the providers of access to that platform respect the platforms standards --
the innovation will run. This was the purpose of the Internet's "end-to-end
design," as network architects Jerome Salzer, David Clark and David Reed
first described it: To enable innovation at the edge of the network without
the innovators concerning themselves about complexity at the core.
Comcast's behavior, at least as detailed in the very careful and
comprehensive order the Commission released today, poisons this environment
for economic growth and innovation in at least three ways:First, as the Order notes, by implementing non-standard network
management technologies, Comcast weakens the value of the platform for
all. If Comcast's behavior became common among broadband service providers,
innovators developing new applications for the Internet would be
required to tailor those applications to the specific local rules of the major
carriers. That tailoring would increase costs and uncertainty, thereby reducing
the return to Internet-based innovation.Second, and again, as the Order notes, by keeping these modifications
to the basic Internet protocol secret, Comcast's behavior only increases
the cost that their nonstandard implementation imposes upon
Internet innovation. [read on: download PDF]
