NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Stream of Fear: The Real Reason They're Blocking Google TV
The Stream of Fear: The Real Reason They're Blocking Google TV
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000779.html
Greetings. In "How They're Blocking Google TV" ( http://bit.ly/csOvzp )
and "Users as Toast: The Blocking of Google TV" ( http://bit.ly/bRDkhO ),
I discussed some of the technical details of online networks' blocking
of Google TV (GTV), and some of the reasons why such blocking
is unacceptable.
But I haven't really talked about *why* the networks (Hulu, CBS,
NBC, ABC, FOX, SyFy, and others) are engaging in this discriminatory
process in the first place.
Google for its part continues a diplomatic "content owners control who
views their content" mantra. As I've previously discussed, this is an
understandable tack. After all, if such disputes can be settled in
mutually agreeable ways, the hassle factor is greatly reduced.
However, even when such agreements are possible, they may also serve to
validate unfair and/or discriminatory practices that are normally
unacceptable in other contexts of our lives -- and that can spell
trouble for the Internet and its users in the long run.
What the broadcast networks are doing to Google TV reminds me of Lucy
snatching the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second of
his kick attempt.
More ominously, think of the landlord who was all set to rent over the
phone, but upon meeting you and seeing your skin color, or your
piercings and tattoos, or whatever -- suddenly turns out to have
rented to someone else.
Now obviously I'm not elevating the blocking of Google TV to the level
of traditional civil rights concerns -- but there's an important
principle at work here -- the right of consumers not be held hostage
by corporate fear mongering.
And fear is at the heart of Google TV blocking.
Google TV buyers are being blocked not simply because the device
permits viewing on big screens -- you can already do that with many
PCs. And contrary to popular speculation, I don't believe that the
generally lower ad rates associated with the online versions of shows,
and concerns about cable and U-verse, et al., subscribers "cutting the
cord," is at the heart of the matter either.
If such were really the main concerns, they would apply equally to
conventional, non-Google TV online viewers, and blocking wouldn't be
directed mainly at GTV.
Market share concerns don't make sense either, especially for already
compatible hardware/software and free viewing, rendering nonsensical
the claim of at least one network that they're blocking since Google
TV represents "too small a market to support." That's just bull.
No, it's about fear. Raw, pure fear. It's about seeing the old
broadcast TV business models starting to drift away, and floundering
around trying to preserve the status quo as much as possible -- in the
process pounding sharp sticks into their viewers' eyes.
There are murmurs that the broadcast networks just don't trust Google.
They whisper off the record their fears that Google will devise some
new monetization system that will put the networks at a disadvantage.
Of course, any PC or browser could be used to display ads or monetize,
not just Google TV -- but Google is always an attractive target in the
best traditions of "whipping boy" logic.
Well I have news. The traditional broadcasters are already at a
disadvantage. A big one. A growing one. The world is changing
around them rapidly. Their exclusivity as major video providers is
slipping away like grains of sand from a closed fist.
What really concerns the broadcast networks is the ramifications of
Google's mission statement ( http://bit.ly/google-mission ):
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make
it universally accessible and useful."
Those fifteen words trigger awesome fear in many quarters. They are
world-changing in effect, and the source both of Google's greatness
and the various controversies that arise from some Google projects --
all aspects of the firm that I've been discussing for years.
The reason why organized information, and universal access to
information, is so scary and disruptive of old models, is that with
access and organization comes *equality*. Not always, and not
automatically, but information is a necessary foundational aspect of
equality -- and restrictions on information have been used throughout
history to control and subjugate.
Google TV terrifies the mainstream industry because, really for the
first time, it demonstrates the positive impact on consumers that
comes with providing essentially equal access both to conventional
television viewing and Internet video.
Searches on Google TV treat both of these traditionally separate media
as a unified universe, making it just as easy to find and view a video
from a vast array of Internet sources as it is to locate and watch a
program on cable channel 300 -- at least assuming that the potential
viewer isn't being blocked!
Artificial distinctions -- the results of technology, policies, and
politics -- between "The Broadcasters" and "The Net" suddenly fade
away. The range of *convenient*, seamless viewing possibilities is
enormously expanded, even including the ability to find videos based
on information in their captions.
Keeping in mind that most people receive their conventional TV and
Internet over the same physical cables anyway, this level of
organization, access, usefulness, and most of all equality, is
arriving none too soon.
Therein lies the heart of the matter. The old guard of
broadcasting -- as is typically the case -- wants to preserve its
advantage at all costs -- even when this means essentially telling
potential viewers to go jump into a lake for -- horrors! -- even
daring to try use Google TV.
In our next installment on this topic, we'll explore some possible
paths forward, including potential ways that Internet users may wish
to consider fighting back.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz