Re: FCC wants a magic, porn-free wireless Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Dana Spiegel [dana () nycwireless net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:24 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    FCC wants a magic, porn-free wireless Internet

Everyone is talking about how the FCC is sticking its nose into
matters of thought and language regulation with Martin's free wireless
internet plan, but for me, there's an even bigger issue:

If a company is interested in providing free internet to everyone,
where are they going to make their money? This isn't a good samaritan
effort, its a business.

Best I can figure it, there's really only 2 ways that a company like
M2Z can build a profitable business providing free internet:

1) ADVERTISING - essentially the FCC is selling a license to the
highest bidder to create a nationwide advertising billboard, kinda
like riding the internet superhighway (though not all that super given
the speeds expected) crammed end to end with countless advertising
banners.

2) SELLING PERSONAL BROWSING/DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION - enticing people
to use the internet for free, and then collecting all sorts of
information about them and selling that information to anyone that
will buy it.

We need to seriously ask HOW such an initiative will be funded by the
winning company. I personally don't like the idea of giving our
spectrum away to a billboard advertiser or data sniffer (or both), and
especially limiting it to a single provider who will have a monopoly
without pressure from competitors to do the right things.

A far better solution would be to open up the spectrum under the same
or similar licensing regime as the 2.4Ghz range, and let anyone use
the spectrum. Then, if a company (or companies) want to set up such a
service, they can, but so can anyone else (like universities, schools,
community wireless organizations, concerned citizens) and provide real
options for getting nationwide wireless internet service.

--
Dana Spiegel
Executive Director
NYCwireless
dana () NYCwireless net
www.NYCwireless.net
+1 917 402 0422

Read the Wireless Community blog: http://www.wirelesscommunity.info

-------------------
NYCwireless is a non-profit organization that advocates for, and
enables the growth of free, public wireless networks
-------------------

On Jun 25, 2008, at 1:35 PM, David Farber wrote:

> ________________________________________
> From: Drew Lentz [drew () drewlentz com]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:48 AM
> To: David Farber
> Cc: ip
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   ] FCC wants a magic, porn-free wireless
> Internet
>
> In a day and age where we are getting trampled in the internet access
> game, this little excuse for playing catch-up is a slap in the face.
> We are a country that promotes the fact that we have freedoms that no
> one else does, however our FCC wants to keep an eye on what we choose
> to view. We all know content filtering won't work, but its the fact
> that the FCC is trying to extend its hand onto my desktop that I have
> an issue with.
>
> M2Z tried and failed multiple times to get this done. Why now? What
> changed to make this a priority now, when the FCC wasn't having it
> before?
>
> -dl
>
> On Jun 25, 2008, at 7:48 AM, David Farber wrote:
>
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Rich Kulawiec [rsk () gsp org]
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 7:28 AM
> > To: David Farber
> > Cc: Sunil Garg
> > Subject: Re: [IP] FCC wants a magic, porn-free wireless Internet
> >
> > On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 03:34:03AM -0700, David Farber wrote:
> > > David Weinberger writes, "The FCC is suggesting that it will make a
> > > slice of spectrum available for free Internet access to users, so
> > > long as
> > > the providers filter out all the porn...and, if the filters don't
> > > work,
> > > then the providers have to use 'other means,' which presumably might
> > > include blocking entire application types or protocols, or blocking
> > > encrypted data. It includes filtering p2p traffic. The idea is now
> > > open for public comment. One of the prominent supporters of this
> > > idea,
> > > M2Z, which is bidding for it, bills itself as a 'free family
> > > friendly
> > > broadband' company. "
> >
> > M2Z is a company run by former FCC insiders and backed by religious
> > fascists (e.g., Focus on the Family): one of the founders (according
> > to Infoworld) is former FCC wireless head Juln Muleta.  They're also
> > promising something -- porn filtering -- which everyone knows can't
> > be
> > done...well, everyone except the companies which continue to falsely
> > claim it can be because doing so lines their pockets with profits far
> > more obscene than any porn found on the Internet.
> >
> > Nor should it be done: in a week in which we lost George Carlin,
> > his masterpiece "Seven Words You Can't Say On  Television" should be
> > a mandatory part of the contemporary American cultural curriculum
> > in every high school in the country.
> >
> > ---Rsk
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------
> > Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
> > RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
> > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
> RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
> Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com



-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com