Net neutrality bill ‘about fairness to consumers’
p2pnet news | Freedom:- “This bill is about fairness to consumers,” Charlie Angus, NDP digital culture spokesman, told the House of Commons today.
“The internet is a critical piece of infrastructure not just for Canada but for the world … this bill protects the innovation agenda of Canada.”
He was tabling C-552, “in reaction to moves by some of Canada’s largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers’ uses of the internet,” says the CBC, going on >>>
Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day,”
The ISPs’ actions have provoked outrage from internet users, with about 300 protesters taking to the steps of Parliament Hill on Tuesday. Critics have said the targeting of peer-to-peer applications is just the tip of the iceberg.
If ISPs are allowed to decide which internet applications can and can’t be used, innovative new companies that were born from experimentation – such as Google, Amazon and eBay – may not happen in the future.”
Net neutrality affects everybody, every person, every business, every hospital, every institution is involved in the exchange of information over the internet,” Angus told CBCnews.ca.
“This shouldn’t be about party lines.”
“We need to protect the internet from being hijacked by vested interests,” declared Phillipa Lawson, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic director, p2pnet in a story including the bill’s text.
“If market forces could solve this problem we wouldn’t be here today,” she stated at the Parliament Hill rally on May 27.
Net neutrality is made up of competition, innovation and consumer rights, said TekSavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault. And they’re ‘Not for sale’.
Angus’ private member’s amendment to the Telecommunications Act prohibits network operators from engaging in network management practices which favour, degrade or prioritise any content, application service transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership or destination, subject to certain exceptions.
It also prohibits network operators from preventing anyone from attaching a device to their network and makes it mandatory for network operators to make information about user online access available to the user.arlier today, .
The NDP is “very wary” about the government intervening in the internet, Angus told the House of Commons, says the CBC, going on:
“Now that the bill has been tabled, it has to wait to be called up in private members’ business in the House.
“Angus is far down on the randomly generated list that determines the order in which members are scheduled to present their bills or motions, but he said he will try to trade positions with another party member to bring it up the list for discussion.”
Stay tuned.
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.Stumble It!
limit their customers’ uses – p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
CBC – Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons, May 28, 2008
p2pnet – Charlie Angus Net Neutrality bill, May 28, 2008
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May 29th, 2008 at 1:41 am
“Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day”
Hahahaa, what a bunch of molarky. The truth is they are not prepared to let customers have what they offered them in the contract. There is too much file sharing (90-95% of users) and they want to reduce their bandwidth, affecting everyone. In a feeble attempt to hide the truth, they claim that a small percentage of customers are doing this, and since they are aware of it and doing something about it, then the problem has been solved, and there’s no need for media cartel attention. It implies also that they are opposed to file sharing, which is what keeps them in business.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I have clearly noted a major unacceptable slowdown of my downloads every evening this week too..
Amazing one of the most active complaint issues by the citizens on Canada’s interent and the major political parties in Canada still have no comment? Why?
“The CRTC certainly shows no signs of protecting consumers, nor do the Conservatives and Liberals; they are much more likely to protect the interests of corporations when it comes to an issue such as this”..
Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons
CBC.ca – 14 hours ago
By Peter Nowak CBC News NDP digital spokesman Charlie Angus doesn’t believe the CRTC has all the tools it needs to prevent interference in the internet by service providers.
Net neutrality bill âabout fairness to consumersâ p2pnet.net
Federal NDP To Introduce Net Neutrality Bill DigitalJournal.com
Metro Canada – Ottawa – IT World Canada Blogs – GigaOm – mediacaster
all 21 news articles »
Interesting to note that this issue gets no attention from Canada’s MAJOR private media organizations. Why? They are clearly influenced by Bell? Compare this to ..
Stand by your ex (or be hoist by your own Couillard) Globe and Mail – What was he doing in Julie Couillard’s house so long after they had broken up? Why did he leave sensitive documents there?
all 1,393 news articles »
“Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons
The private member’s bill, C-552, is in reaction to moves by some of Canada’s largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers’ uses of the internet. Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day.
The ISPs’ actions have provoked outrage from internet users, with about 300 protesters taking to the steps of Parliament Hill on Tuesday. Critics have said the targeting of peer-to-peer applications is just the tip of the iceberg. If ISPs are allowed to decide which internet applications can and can’t be used, innovative new companies that were born from experimentation â such as Google, Amazon and eBay â may not happen in the future.
“Net neutrality affects everybody, every person, every business, every hospital, every institution is involved in the exchange of information over the internet,” Angus told CBCnews.ca. “This shouldn’t be about party lines.”
May 29th, 2008 at 8:41 am
ISPs are pulling the “we’re protecting everyone” card but what they fail to acknowledge is that if it truly is a few abusers taking the bandwidth from others, they could simply charge more to abusers and use the extra revenue to expand the infrastructure, which is obviously needed given the proliferation of legal downloading of video and other large files these days.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Most ISP’s do charge extra for downloading content. Most users have a limited amount of download capacity per month (ie. the customer can only download 7 gigabytes per month, just for arguements sake) after which the ISP will charge appropriately for each gigabyte used that goes over that limit. This limit I do believe (I’m not to sure about this aspect) is a combination of the total uploading and downloading per month that the end-customer does.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
It’s really about some pretty simple math…
If the net is hitting 95% capacity slow everyone down by 1% to prevent overloads and dropouts.
Their way means slowing 10% of their customers by 90% to get the same effect.
A 1% or even a 5% across the board slowdown would likely go unnoticed… when they chop the
bottom out of my plan, forcing me back to dial-up speeds you can bet I’m going to notice.
Bottom line… I pay for 5mbps access and that’s what I expect to get.