Papers and Articles on Internet Policy

ACTA, SOPA & the EU - essential background

The Copyright Enforcement Enigma jacket

SOPA and PIPA have put Internet copyright into the mainstream news agenda. The Copyright Enforcement Enigma introduces you to this topic. It explains the history of copyright sanctions. It puts 3-strikes and blocking policies into context. And it unravels the strange story of how it all got mixed up in the Telecoms Package and Amendment 138. When you finish it, you will understand why the ISPs and fundamental rights are under attack! Click here to get it!

Net Neutrality

Until last year, the European Union did not have a policy on net neutrality. The reason why net neutrality is now on the EU policy agenda, is a direct result of events that occurred during the Telecoms Package process. Pressure from citizens groups forced the issue in the European Parliament. The rapporteur, Catherine Trautmann played a tight hand with the other EU institutions, which resulted in an instruction to the Commission.

The outcome was a public seminar on net neutrality at the end of last year, and consultation process, which invited responses from citizen stakeholders as well as industry. So far, so good. However, the process has been criticised as a cosmetic exercise, and the Commission's response as a weak sop to the dominant telecoms industry lobbyists.

Anyone involved in the industry today will know of the powerful technical capabilities now in the hands of those telecoms companies. Deep packet inspection and traffic management systems make blocking, prioritisation, discrimination of different types of traffic not only possible, but happening. The neutrality on which the Internet is based - and which is indeed essential for the proper functioning of a communications network - is under threat, and our policy-makers are spineless in the face of large commercial interests.

When one writes about this subject of net neutrality, it is impossible to ignore these factors. Indeed, I believe that policy writing which fails to tackle them, would lack credibiility. This section will therefore discuss the threats to the Internet posed by these counter-neutral technologies, and their policy implications. And it will take a critical look at the politicking of the people in power in the EU.

2012 - who guards the network guardians?

Monica Horten

Published on 03 January 2012

Will the next corporate scandal involve the Internet?

The Financial Times today* suggests that 2012 will be a pivotal year for the media. I think that when we look back in a few years’ time, 2010 will be a tipping point for the Internet too. In retrospect, we will know whether those who currently guard the networks had a public or a private interest at heart.

In 2011, we saw the apparent vindication of the Internet as an enabler of democracy, coupled with a massive growth in Internet traffic, ending the year with a huge spike on Xmas day as people downloaded apps on their new Smartphones. The wider context was one of corporate greed and media despotism, the ever-deepening banking crisis and the exposure of the rottenness in the British media, specifically the Murdoch organisation. Add to that allegations of political corruption, as in Hungary regarding its consitutional changes and Spain regarding Ley Sinde.

Why would one bring these apparently unrelated concepts together in a discussion of Internet policy?

EU Council orders a watch on net neutrality

Monica Horten

Published on 16 December 2011

In a surprising gesture of pre-Christmas bonhomie, the Council of Ministers has issued directions to European Telecoms regulators, and to the European Commission to put in the preliminaries of a net neutrality policy.

Blood money, silent Blackberries - time to regulate mobiles?

Monica Horten

Published on 27 October 2011

Are the mobile companies getting away with poor service, operating as as cartels and supporting cruel labour practices in the name of cheaper phones?

Blackberry’s recent data server outage left millions of people without their emails or access to the Internet for several days. Blackberry said ‘sorry’ but is that enough? Meanwhile, as Nokia launched its new Windows smartphone, its PR succeeded in focussing the journalists on the excitement of new apps. The mobile companies are conspicuously silent on the allegation that phone manufacturers are supporting the most horrifying labour conditions to mine essential minerals for the smartphone chips, and potentially financing the civil war in the Congo.