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[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Does AA VoIP usage violate the "federal Internet policy"


Lauren,

I think the big issues brought up below: lots of people talking over
VOIP and porn viewing over the Internet during flight are overstated
and quite simple to deal with wholly outside of technology and
government policy.  Today, flight attendants actually do a great job
enforcing similar airline policies without sophisticated technology
implementations.

For example, there are many times when my phone is left on in a plane
and I am getting adequate reception to do a phone call (mostly during
takeoff and landing).  I do not make a phone call or start texting
simply because the airline's policy is that that is not allowed and I
know that I will be dealt with by a complaint from another passenger
and/or a flight attendant who notices that I am on the phone.

Likewise, the same could apply for VOIP on planes.  If the airline
doesn't allow VOIP calls then it is easy enough to stop without any
complex technology policy or technology investment.  Instead, just as
when you don't fasten your seatbelt, move the seat back during
landing, or try to make a non-Voip call, you simply will be prevented
from doing so by the flight crew.

Regarding porn in the air, a passenger could easily play back a porn
download or DVD, or simply bring a few magazines along with him/her.
The lustful passenger chooses not to because of the obvious social
pressure and actual enforcement by the crew.

Almost all of the hullabalu over tech policy on planes can be solved
by simple enforcement that already exists (no phone calls, no
"objectionable" content policies already in place).

I do agree with you that the main tech policy really necessary or
reasonable on a plane is a metering capability so that no one user
hogs all of the bandwidth.

Thanks,

Travis

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> wrote:
> I have not yet taken a "formal" public position on the issue of phone
> calls from planes.  This seems to be an issue that has only come to
> a head with the threat of largescale phone usage -- it did not seem
> to be a big controversy when restricted to (expensive and limited)
> use of Airfone services.
>
> However, blocking of protocols is going to open up the same can of
> worms we're dealing with now in the ground-based Internet.  Will
> people try to do high-traffic P2P from the air?  Surely some will,
> unwittingly if nothing else.  Of more concern to me is word I've just
> received claiming that American Airline flight attendants have asked
> the airline to install filters to prevent passengers from viewing
> "porn" (however that is to be defined) due to concerns for
> passengers who can see other passengers' screens.  That potentially
> gets us into *all* of the controversies about Internet filtering
> that I won't bother to rehash here.
>
> Fundamentally, my take on this is that if you're going to allow access
> to the Internet on planes, attempts to control that access with anything
> other than application-independent total throughput management is a
> recipe for a real mess that the airlines don't really need right now.
>
> --Lauren--
> NNSquad Moderator
>