Net Neutrality
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The “Internet Slowdown” and Net Neutrality Update
Wednesday afternoon, I clicked on a Vimeo link and was greeted by an airtight pop-up. In order to pass on to the video, I had to enter my cell phone number and zip code. I complied, and not a second later, I received a call briefing me on talking points of the FCC’s revision to the Open Internet Order — which would allow broadband providers to charge sites for guaranteed service — and was then connected to senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Wednesday, September 10, marked the technical end to the public comment period of the FCC’s detrimental potential amendments to the net neutrality act. To mobilize […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 12, 2014 -
The Last Mile
In the battle between big telecoms and tech companies over the issue of net neutrality, independent filmmakers are inevitably going to be collateral damage. While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hasn’t yet gone forward with plans to allow Internet Service Providers to charge websites for faster service, the current proposals suggest that challenging times are ahead for media makers and companies who use the Web, with potentially higher costs and increased barriers to entry. As Jamie Wilkinson, CEO of digital distribution platform VHX questions, “As the market gets more crowded, will the prices be driven up?” Without the deep pockets […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Jul 17, 2014 -
Will Tom Wheeler Kill Net Neutrality?
“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over.” Guess who said these memorable words? In November 2007, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama uttered this now all-but-forgotten campaign promise. The president recently announced his plan to appoint Tom Wheeler (above), a true industry insider, to head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Wheeler is a career water carrier for corporate interests. He served as head of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1979 and 1984, and ran the Cellular Telecom and Internet Association (CTIA) from 1992 through 2004. […]
by David Rosen on May 16, 2013 -
Neutralizing Net Neutrality
Net neutrality may end this year. Verizon, AT&T and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are spearheading a three-pronged attack against the open Internet and other open forms of digital communications. If they succeed, telecommunications will be further “deregulated” and, thus, further privatized and monopolized. As a consequence, telecom services will get more expensive, local requirements subordinated to the whims of huge corporate monopolies, competition and innovation will suffer and U.S. world ranking in terms of broadband speed – 15th today! – will further erode. One attack involves Verizon’s court challenge to the FCC’s very authority to regulate digital communications. […]
by David Rosen on Feb 4, 2013 -
MEDIA CURRENT: IS NET NEUTRALITY DEAD?
Will net neutrality take effect on November 20th? Approximately sixty days ago, the FCC published its net neutrality rules in the Federal Register, thus setting in motion a formal review process that ends on the 20th. Adopted in December 2010, only now, nearly a year later, they will go into effect. Given the enormous pressure exerted by the communications trust, the rules have not only been significantly watered down, but face powerful challenges from the Congress and in the court. Under fierce pressure from corporate lobbyists and hefty payoffs to Congresspersons on various oversight committees, net neutrality will likely be […]
by David Rosen on Nov 7, 2011 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 1/9/11
Here are some articles of interest I’ve sent to my Instapaper this week. At Script Shadow, Carson Reeves lists the 10 ways he knows he’s reading an amateur script. All of these are quotable, but here’s one: BORING ON-THE-NOSE DIALOGUE – This is probably the biggest clue that you’re dealing with an amateur. The dialogue is really straightforward and boring. Characters say exactly what they mean: “You make me so angry!’ Characters get way more specific than people in real life would: “I’m going to head over to get a cheeseburger at Portillo’s and then call my mom.” (instead of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2011 -
GOOGLE/VERIZON: “YOU CAN HAVE YOUR INTERNET!”
As a general net neutrality supporter, I find the “read between the lines” nature of this latest news from Google/Verizon fairly ominous. The story, in which the two companies discuss setting up extra-internet wireless services, just broke, though, so I’ll be looking forward to reading the ensuing commentary and details. From the New York Times about their proposal: The proposal also excludes other online services [from net neutrality regulations] that broadband providers might create in the future. These new online services could include services for entertainment or healthcare monitoring, the companies said. Google and Verizon said that such new online […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 9, 2010 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: MONDAY MORNING LINKS
I normally try to post my links-fests on Sundays, but here’s a one-day late compendium of articles in my Instapaper. If you read our newsletter, you’ll have seen my link to novelist Stacy D’Erasmo’s essay on the writer’s life, “The Long Haul,” over at The Rumpus. For any artist struggling to figure out not how to make work, but how to live a life that involves the perpetual making of work, including films, this is an essential read. In its clarity and wisdom I found it inspiring. An excerpt: Over the long haul, whether you ever intended to or not, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 9, 2010 -
NET NEUTRALITY
I like Aaron Sorkin, but I don’t know what to make of the fact that he’s so loudly publicizing the fact that he knows so little about the online world he’ll be writing about in his Scott Rudin-commissioned script on Facebook. I’ve listened to interviews with Sorkin before in which he’s talked about capturing the rhythms of intelligent speech and about how one doesn’t have to know all the details of a character’s profession in order to write that character. And yes, often an outsider’s eye can be the best when it comes to entering into a world and finding […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2008 -
MISSED CONNECTIONS
Over at his blog, Anthony Kaufman is blogging about developments in Net Neutrality:: Yesterday, a Republican-dominated House committee shot down an amendment put forth by a Massachusetts Democrat that would have prohibited broadband providers (such as AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast) from blocking or degrading Internet connections to websites that they may deem as competitors. “Net Neutrality” has suffered a major setback… If you don’t think this affects your livelihood and freedom as artists, consider this similar to the Showtime/Smithsonian deal: It’s all about privatizing and monetizing institutions and archives (be they physical or digital) that should be free and equal […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 27, 2006
