Michael Geist via the Toronto Star is reporting on Rogers Net Neutrality violations. From the article: Rogers’ traffic shaping practices have also raised concern among network neutrality advocates, who fear that the company could limit bandwidth to competing content or services. Some customers note that the bandwidth consumed by customers […]
Archive for April 16th, 2007
Rogers and Net Neutrality
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the Rogers traffic shaping issue and the resulting impact on consumer rights, competition, and non-P2P applications. If you read my original posting and the many comments that followed, the column covers similar terrain. I therefore think it might be more useful to respond to an interesting posting from Matt Roberts on the Rogers issue. Roberts confirms the Rogers shaping (as does Mark Evans in a posting that refers to it as bandwidth management, a distinction without a difference in my view) but then takes me to task for wrapping it into the net neutrality debate.
The post raises an interesting and important question – is throttling/traffic shaping a net neutrality issue? I should note that regardless of the answer, I believe there is no question that there are problems with the current Rogers approach. The lack of transparency, the misleading service claims, and the inclusion of bandwidth caps that are rendered difficult to achieve all point to an issue that should attract the attention of regulatory agencies (and perhaps class action lawyers).
As for whether there is a net neutrality problem, that likely depends on your definition of net neutrality.
OECD on User Generated Content
The OECD has just issued an important and insightful report on user generated content and the policy issues it raises.
BBC To Make Million Hours of Archive Freely Available
The BBC has announced plans to make one million hours from its television and radio archive freely available to UK residents. Moreover, it will add scripts, supporting documentation, and letters related to the show in a classic illustration of what a public broadcaster should be doing in the public interest.
Rogers Must Come Clean on Traffic Shaping
Appeared in the Toronto Star on April 16, 2007 as ISP Must Come Clean on 'Traffic Shaping' With well over a million subscribers, Rogers is universally recognized as one of Canada's leading Internet service providers. The company offers several tiers of services, including the "Extreme" package that boasts of "blistering […]