DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELLFCC Orders Comcast To End Discriminatory Network Management Practices

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 1, 2008 2:32:57 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: FCC Orders Comcast To End Discriminatory  
Network Management Practices

[Note:  Here is the statement of Commissioner McDowell.  Its long, so  
go to the link for the entire statement.  Commissioner Tate's  
statement is still not available.  DLH]

<http://www.fcc.gov/comcast-st-mcdowell-080108.pdf>

DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL

RE: Formal Complaint of Free Press and Public Knowledge Against  
Comcast Corporation
for Secretly Degrading Peer-to-Peer Applications; Broadband Industry  
Practices, Petition of Free
Press et al. for Declaratory Ruling that Degrading an Internet  
Application Violates the FCC’s Internet
Policy Statement and Does Not Meet an Exception for “Reasonable  
Network Management,” File No.
EB-08-IH-1518, WC Docket No. 07-52, Memorandum Opinion and Order.

First, I’d like to thank the public interest groups who brought this  
matter to our attention for
doing so.  I’d also like to thank the Chairman for having us all focus  
on this case.  Shining a spotlight
on these issues has helped raise awareness and spark a debate which  
has been constructive, at times.

All of us can agree on a few things.  The Internet should remain open  
and free.  Our policies,
and the policies of all governments everywhere, should promote such  
freedom.  We can also agree that
network operators could do a better job of educating consumers  
regarding the limitations of their
networks and how those networks need to be managed to keep the  
Internet functioning.  We have seen
a lot of improvement in that area in the past couple of months due, in  
part, to this proceeding.

I also hope we can agree that applications providers could do a better  
job of designing software
that works more efficiently on networks that were designed and built  
sometimes decades ago.  The
providers of certain peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, for example,  
could do a better job of making
consumers aware that their applications require consumers’ computers  
to work 24 by 7 in ways that can
tie up their computing power and reduce broadband speeds for  
themselves and their neighbors.

I think we can also agree – and in this I concur in Commissioner  
Tate’s statement – that it is
tremendously important for network operators to be authorized to guard  
against unlawful Internet
content such as child pornography, for the Commission to act as a  
mediator rather than a regulator
when appropriate, and for network operators to adequately disclose  
their terms of service.

In that spirit, I am concerned that we are witnessing a deepening  
division between some in the
application industry and some network operators.  Both sectors are  
indispensable to our burgeoning
Internet economy.  History teaches us that we are all better off if we  
reject the rhetoric of the extremes
on both sides and resolve technological disputes through collaboration  
and negotiation.  Looking back
through the long lens of time, it is obvious that the Internet is the  
greatest free-market success story of
all time precisely because conflicts were resolved in this manner.   
Continued escalation of rhetoric
serves no one well, least of all American consumers.

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