Tag: Managing the Internet
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Staying Off the Regulatory Radar
I just returned from a tech policy conference. It was off the record so I can’t tell you about what was said. But I can tell you that it got me thinking about what happens when a tech startup appears on policymakers’ radar screens. Policymakers respond to what they see. Generally they don’t see startups,…
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Internet So Crowded, Nobody Goes There Anymore
Once again we’re seeing stories, like this one from Anick Jesdanun at AP, saying that the Internet is broken and needs to be redesigned. The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a “clean slate” approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since…
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FreeConference Suit: Neutrality Fight or Regulatory Squabble?
Last week FreeConference, a company that offers “free” teleconferencing services, sued AT&T for blocking access by AT&T/Cingular customers to FreeConference’s services. FreeConference’s complaint says the blocking is anticompetitive and violates the Communications Act. FreeConference’s service sets up conference calls that connect a group of callers. Users are given an ordinary long-distance phone number to call.…
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How Much Bandwidth is Enough?
It is a matter of faith among infotech experts that (1) the supply of computing and communications will increase rapidly according to Moore’s Law, and (2) the demand for that capacity will grow roughly as fast. This mutual escalation of supply and demand causes the rapid change we see in the industry. It seems to…
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Why So Little Attention to Botnets?
Our collective battle against botnets is going badly, according to Ryan Naraine’s recent article in eWeek. What’s that? You didn’t know we were battling botnets? You’re not alone. Though botnets are a major cause of Internet insecurity problems, few netizens know what they are or how they work. In this context, a “bot” is a…
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Spamhaus Tests U.S. Control Over Internet
In a move sure to rekindle debate over national control of the Internet, a US court may soon issue an order stripping London-based spamhaus.org of its Internet name. Here’s the backstory. Spamhaus, an anti-spam organization headquartered in London, publishes ROKSO, the “Register of Known Spam Operations”. Many sites block email from ROKSO-listed sites, as an…
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Taking Stevens Seriously
From the lowliest blogger to Jon Stewart, everybody is laughing at Sen. Ted Stevens and his remarks (1.2MB mp3) on net neutrality. The sound bite about the Internet being “a series of tubes” has come in for for the most ridicule. I’ll grant that Stevens sounds pretty confused on the recording. But’s let’s give the…
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Net Neutrality: Strike While the Iron Is Hot?
Bill Herman at the Public Knowledge blog has an interesting response to my net neutrality paper. As he notes, my paper was mostly about the technical details surrounding neutrality, with a short policy recommendation at the end. Here’s the last paragraph of my paper: There is a good policy argument in favor of doing nothing…
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New Net Neutrality Paper
I just released a new paper on net neutrality, called Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality. It’s based on several of my earlier blog posts, with some new material.
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Does the Great Firewall Violate U.S. Law?
Clayton, Murdoch, and Watson have an interesting new paper describing technical mechanisms that the Great Firewall of China uses to block online access to content the Chinese government doesn’t like. The Great Firewall works in two parts. One part inspects data packets that cross the border between China and the rest of the world, looking…