[ NNSquad ] The Expansion of Reasonable Network Management

[Robb Topolski <robb@funchords.com>]

NNSquad,

If the Open Internet NPRM goes through, Reasonable Network Management will have the following definition:

Reasonable network management consists of: (a) reasonable practices employed by a provider of broadband Internet access to (i) reduce or mitigate the effects of congestion on its network or to address quality-of-service concerns; (ii) address traffic that is unwanted by users or harmful; (iii) prevent the transfer of unlawful content; or (iv) prevent the unlawful transfer of content; and (b) other reasonable network management practices.

I worry about this definition because while it obviously muddies the definition in a circular fashion (for example, it defines reasonable network management as including "other reasonable network management practices"), it clearly expands the role of an ISP in the areas of censorship ("prevent the transfer of unlawful content") and copyright enforcement ("prevent the unlawful transfer of content").  

We need to help the FCC understand why this is a wrong move. 

"Reasonable Network Management" must be a description of what ISPs are expected to do.  Currently, ISPs are not expected to be the censors nor the copyright police, except as lawfully ordered to do by the court.  These censorship and copyright enforcement roles are brand new roles, and they're not related to network management at all.  

Even if the task was a desirable role for the ISP, the technology to do this barely exists, and that which does exist only barely functions.  The repeated failure of Australia's net censorship experiments shows that the state of the art is insufficient to the task. The desirability of the task itself is questionable, with only 5% of Australians wanting net censorship while 61% opposed censorship. The 2008 DPI bake-off conducted by InternetEvolution showed that the copyright-protection job wasn't effective, either. (And what's the future permissibility of encryption on an Internet where the ISP is expected to ensure that only legal things are transferred legally?)

Commenters needs to head over to OpenInternet.gov and get their views on the record.  

-- 
Robb Topolski

office: topolski@newamerica.net 
Chief Technologist, 

Open Technology Initiative @ New America Foundation
consultant to Free Press and Public Knowledge (robb@publicknowledge.org)
202-596-3426 (desk)   202-986-3696 (fax)

1899 L. St NW #400, Washington DC  20036

personal messages to: robb@funchords.com
202-713-8357 (cell/text) **NEW**

“Those who wish to sing always find a song.”