EFF Membership in Telecommunications Policy Roundtable

[Daniel J. Weitzner <djw () eff org>]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is pleased to announce its participation
in the newly formed Telecommunications Policy Roundtable.  With market
actions fast outpacing the public policy process, it is critical that
citizens groups articulate basic public interest goals which can help frame
the debate over information infrastructure policy.  

Organizations such as the Association of Research Libraries, the Center for
Media Education, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and the
Institute for Civic Networking all played leading roles in initiating the
Roundtable.  We thank these organizations, for creating the very important
forum in which a wide range of public interest organizations work together
to frame common communications policy goals.  In addition to general
participation in the group, EFF has agreed to focus its efforts on the
public policy and legislative strategy taskforce of the Roundtable.

The initial announcement of the Roundtable (posted to com-priv) contained
some suggestion that EFF's work on infrastructure policy issues over the
last year was narrow and lacking in vision.  Though we have never pretended
to know, or be able to pursue, the solutions to all communications policy
problems, we do feel that we have made a significant contribution to the
infrastucture debate and to the effort to protect free speech and privacy
in new electronic media.  Some criticize our emphasis on ISDN and other
affordable digital media as too narrow.  We believe that our Open Platform
policy efforts in support of ISDN have caused a major change in the way
that communcations infrastructure policy is discussed.  With the example of
ISDN, we showed that citizens do not have to wait around 20 years while
RBOCs lay fiber-to-the-home.  Rather, with affordable, available
technology, those who don't own telephone networks or cable television
networks can start to create the applications and services which will shape
our experience of the information age.  Our Open Platorm efforts are aimed
to increasing the diversity of information sources, expanding the notion of
universal service, increasing access to information, and protecting
privacy. ISDN is not our final goal, but a first step that shows we should
begin to expect the benefits of digital networking technology soon, at
affordable rates, and with nondiscriminatory terms.  

In order to show that we are not stuck on ISDN, either as a technology or a
policy goal, we convened a meeting of over twenty major public
organizations on June 1, 1993 (several weeks before the Roundtable was
announced), to discuss EFF's long-term policy concerns and hear the views
of other groups.  A section of the paper that we prepared for that meeting
is appended to this message.  We hope that this will clarify that EFF does
have a view of communications policy goals beyond ISDN.  We certainly
invite comments on this document, but hope that in the future people who
write about our positions will take the time to read our work first. 
(Please see also an article in the July/August '93 issue of Wired Magazine
by Mitchell Kapor, EFF's Chairman of the Board, "Where Is the Digital
Highway Really Heading?  A Case for a Jeffersonian Information Policy" for
a broad statement of EFF's infrastructure vision.)

EFF has joined the Roundtable to be part of the process of framing a
comprehensive public interest communications policy.  We are looking
forward to the success of this effort.

=========================================================
TOWARD A NEW PUBLIC INTEREST COMMUNICATIONS POLICY AGENDA
FOR THE INFORMATION AGE

A Framework for Discussion

by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

June 1, 1993

I.      Introduction

        For over a decade techno-prophets have been predicting the
convergence of telephone, computer and television technologies.  In this
world, endless information would be available at the touch of a button and
many of life's chores would be simplified by artificially-intelligent
personal assistants.  The prophesied results were said to be everything
from a newfound global village enabled by democratized communications
tools, to an Orwellian multimedia, mind-numbing, thought-controlling,
consumer culture/police-state gone wild.  In the past, discussions of this
convergence has been relegated to the musings of futurists and the arcana
of telecommunications regulatory policy.  This year, however, the grand
convergence is evident both on the front pages of national magazines and
newspapers, as well as in the White House.  Telecommunications
infrastructure policy -- the management of this grand convergence -- has
arrived as a mainstream policy issue.

        Most telling of all, large investments are now being made in order
to take advantage of business opportunities arising out of the convergence
of television, computers, and telecommunications.  Despite existing
regulatory barriers, a number of major corporations have undertaken major
initiatives which blur the traditional media distinctions.  Regional Bell
Operating Companies, including Bell Atlantic and US West, have announced
multi-billion dollar infrastructure investment plans which position them to
expand from the telecommunications market to the video entertainment
market.  By the same token, cable television companies are crossing over
from their traditional domain toward being able to offer telecommunications
services.  Early in 1993, Time-Warner announced plans to offer interactive
services and connections directly to long distance telephone networks for
residential customers in Orlando, FL.  Six cable television companies also
recently joined forces to purchase a company called Teleport, which
competes directly with local telephone companies.  And finally, US West
announced in May 1993 that it will purchase a multi-billion dollar stake in
Time-Warner Entertainment Partners.

        All of these developments are being watching with great interest by
Congress and the Administration.  No longer is telecommunications policy a
matter of sorting out the special interests of newspaper companies,
telephone companies, and cable companies.  Rather it has been re-christened
as "information infrastructure" policy.  As such, it is recognized to have
major implications for domestic economic development, global
competitiveness, and science and technology policy.  The ultimate symbol of
this increased interest in telecommunications policy is the Vice
President's frequent declaration that the Clinton Administration is
committed to promoting the creation of electronic superhighways in the
1990s, just as the Vice President's father oversaw the construction of the
interstate highway system in the 1950s.  

        Talk of superhighways and potential for new economic growth,
though, may lead some to forget that in shaping information infrastructure
policy, we must also be guided by core communications policy values.  The
"highways" that are being built here are for speech as well as for
commerce.  In order to preserve the democratic character of our society as
we move into the Information Age, these key public interest communications
policy goals must be kept at the forefront:

o       Diversity of Information Sources:  Creating an infrastructure that
promotes the First Amendment goal of availability of a maximum possible
diversity of view points;

o       Universal Service:  Ensuring a minimum level of affordable,
interactive service to all Americans;

o       Free Speech and Common Carriage:  Guaranteeing infrastructure
access regardless of the content of the message that the user is sending;

o       Privacy:  Protecting the security and privacy of all communications
carried over the infrastructure, and safeguarding the Fourth and Fifth
Amendment rights of all who uses the information infrastructure;

o       Development of Public Interest Applications and Services:  Ensuring
that public interest applications and services which are not produced by
the commercial market are available and affordable.

Advances in telecommunications have tremendous potential to support all of
these important communications policy values.  In many cases, inexpensive
equipment exists which could give individuals and small organizations a
degree of control over information that has never before been possible. 
However, if not implemented with core communications values in mind, the
technology will do more harm than good.  The convergence of historically
separate communications media poses a major challenge to the public
interest community.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation hopes to play a
role with other public interest organizations in realizing the democratic
potential of these new technologies.

II.     Framing Public Interest Communications Policy Goals For The
Information Age: What is at Stake in the Development of the Information
Infrastructure

A. Diversity of Information Sources

        Aside from the universal service guaranty, the driving
communications policy value for the last fifty years has been promotion of
the maximum diversity of information sources, with the greatest variety of
view points.  Most agree that from a diversity standpoint, the ideal
environment is the print medium.  Compared to both the broadcast and cable
television arenas, print is the vehicle for the greatest diversity of
viewpoints and has the lowest publication and distribution costs.  Despite
the regulatory steps taken to promote diversity in the mass media, the
desired variety of opinion and information has never been fully achieved.

        The switched nature of advanced digital network technology offers
to end the spectrum and channel scarcity problem altogether.  If new
network services are deployed with adequate down- and up-stream capacity,
and allow point-to-point communication, then each user of the network can
be both an information consumer and publisher.  Network architecture which
is truly peer-to-peer can help produce in digital media the kind of
information diversity that only exists today only in the print media.  If
network access is guaranteed, as is the case in the public switched
telephone network, the need for content providers to negotiate for air time
and channel allocation will be eliminated.  Even in a truly interactive
network environment the government will still need to provide financial
support to ensure that public interest programming is produced and
available, but channel set-asides per se will not be necessary.

B. Universal Service: From Plain Old Telephone Service to Plain Old Digital
Service

        The principle of equitable access to basic services is an integral
part of nation's public switched telephone network.  From the early history
of the telephone network, both government and commercial actors have taken
steps to ensure that access to basic voice telephone services is affordable
and accessible to all segments of society.  Since the divestiture of AT&T,
many of the internal cross-subsidies that supported the "social contract"
of universal service have fallen away.  Re-creation of old patterns of
subsidy may no longer be possible nor necessarily desirable, but serious
thought must be given to sources of funds that will guaranty that the
economically disadvantaged will still have access to basic communications
services.

        The universal service guaranty in the Communications Act of 1934
has, until now, been interpreted to mean access to "plain old telephone
service" (POTS).   In the Information Age, we must extend this guaranty to
include "plain old digital service."  Extending this guaranty means
ensuring that new basic digital services are affordable and ubiquitously
available.  Equity and the democratic imperative also demand that these
services meet the needs of people with disabilities, the elderly, and other
groups with special needs.  Failure to do so is sure to create a society of
"information haves and have nots."

C. Free Speech: Common Carriage

        In a society which relies more and more on electronic
communications media as its primary conduit for expression, full support
for First Amendment values requires extension of the common carrier
principle to all of these new media.  Common carriers are companies which
provide conduit services for the general public.  The common carrier's
duties have evolved over hundreds of years in the common law and later in
statutory provisions.  Common carriers have a duty to:

oprovide services in a non-discriminatory manner at a fair price, 
ointerconnect with other carriers, and 
oprovide adequate services

The public must have access to digital data transport services, such as
ISDN and ADSL, which are regulated by the principles of common carriage.  

        Re-shaping common carriage duties for new media environments is of
critical importance as mass media and telecommunications services converge
and recombine in new forms.  Telephone companies, the traditional providers
of common carriage communications services, are moving closer and closer to
providing video and other content-based services.  By the same token, cable
television companies, which have functioned as program providers, are
showing great interest in offering telecommunications services.  In what is
sure to be an increasingly complex environment, we must ensure that common
carriage transport is available to those who want it.  

        Unlike arrangements found in many countries, our communications
infrastructure is owned by private corporations instead of by the
government.  Therefore, a legislatively imposed expanded duty of common
carriage on public switched telephone carriers is necessary to protect free
expression effectively.  A telecommunications provider under a common
carrier obligation would have to carry any legal message regardless of its
content whether it is voice, data, images, or sound.  For example, if full
common-carrier protections were in place for all  of the conduit services
offered by the phone company, the terminations of "controversial" 900
services such as political fundraising would not be allowed, just as the
phone company is now prohibited by the Communications Act from
discriminating in the provision of basic voice telephone services.  As a
matter of law and policy, the common carriage protections should be
extended from basic voice service to cover basic data service as well.

D. Privacy

        With dramatic increases in reliance on digital media for
communications, the need for comprehensive protection of privacy in these
media grows.  The scope of the emerging digital communications revolution
poses major new challenges for those concerned about protecting
communications privacy.  Communication which is carried on paper through
the mail system, or over the wire-based public telephone network is
relatively secure from random intrusion by others.  But the same
communication carried, for example, over a cellular or other wireless
communication system, is vulnerable to being intercepted by anyone who has
very inexpensive, easy-to-obtain scanning technology.  As such, access to
robust, affordable encryption technology will be critical to enable people
to protect their own privacy.  Government controls on encryption systems,
whether for law enforcement or national security reasons, raise grave
constitutional issues and could undermine individuals' ability to protect
the privacy of personal information and communications. 
 

For more information contact:

Electronic Frontier Foundation
1001 G St, NW
Suite 950 East
Washington, DC  20001

eff () eff org

A complete copy of this document is available on by anonymous ftp at
ftp.eff.org in the file named
"pub/EFF/papers/open-platform-discussion-1993".