neutrality
Latest
Wiretapping Act could spell 'finito' for Italian Wikipedia
This week, lawmakers in Italy are debating a controversial new bill that could have disastrous implications for Wikipedia. Yesterday, the encyclopedia posted a lengthy letter on its Italian portal, informing visitors that the site may be shuttered within the country if parliament passes the proposed DDL Intercettazioni, or "Wiretapping Law." If ratified, the legislation would require all online publishers to amend any content considered objectionable or defamatory within 48 hours of receiving a complaint. Offenders would face a fine of €12,000 (about $16,000), and any requested corrections would not be subject to review. Of course, this presents obvious problems for the crowdsourced (and crowd-edited) Wikipedia, which characterized the law as "an unacceptable restriction of [its] freedom and independence." The site took particular umbrage at the bill's apparent disregard for third-party review, pointing out that the "opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required" to force a re-write, "regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources." At the moment, the portal is still up, but masked by Wikipedia's letter. If the Wiretapping Law progresses further, however, the organization says it will have no choice but to delete its Italian platform altogether. [Image courtesy of Toutlecine]
The Lawbringer: Net neutrality and MMOs
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Everyone is talking about net neutrality these days, on each end of the spectrum. Regulation will fix it! Regulation won't fix it! The end of times! To be honest, content companies and internet service providers alike would like nothing more that to make their margins wider, and nothing will stand in the way of profit. This week, I want to take a look at some of the potential issues and hypothetical situations that could come about as a result of an internet that lives under the watchful eye of a filter. Preferring some internet packets over another could one day be a huge problem for MMO creators, because so much of the business is dependent on your information getting from one place to another at a speedy clip. Yes, I am aware that ISPs already use deep packet inspection to make sure the internet works, period, but we're talking about a world where anything goes, where regulation lets internet service providers play their own game.
Tim Berners-Lee entreats us to keep the net neutral, standards open, and speech free
We've always thought pretty highly of this Tim Berners-Lee fella, and now we've got a whole essay penned by him to show you why that is. In a six-page treatise on the current state of the web, Tim discusses why universality of access is so important to our freedom of speech and other democratic liberties, why open standards will always prevail over closed ecosystems (with a special critique of Apple's iTunes and concordant appification of the web), and also why it's necessary to distinguish between the web and the internet. Oh, and he also manages to squeeze in one of the most succinct explanations of net neutrality and its growing importance in our massively interconnected world. Hit the source for the full shot of enlightenment. [Image courtesy of Paul Clarke]
Google and Verizon sign net neutrality agreement, begin the end of net neutrality? (update: Google, Verizon deny claims)
It's been a bumpy road for net neutrality in the US, and the latest word on the subject, of a partnership between Verizon and Google, could result in American internet freedom taking one step forward and two steps back. Last year, the two companies said together that they were all for net neutrality regardless of the source being a traditional or wireless ISP. Now, according to Bloomberg, they may have changed their tune somewhat, striking a deal that, up front, prevents Verizon from gimping traffic it doesn't like on its DSL and FiOS networks. That sounds good, but according to Politico the deal still allows Verizon to "prioritize certain traffic" -- more or less defeating the whole purpose if true. More troublingly, Verizon is able to do whatever it wants when it comes to managing wireless broadband, through mobile hotspots or, indeed, the plethora of Android handsets it now offers. Mind you, neither company is coming forward to discuss these supposed plans (Google saying it has "nothing to announce at this point") so this could all be much ado about nothing. We certainly hope it is, especially since we're talking about two companies who last year pledged they wanted to "ensure the openness of the web around the world." Update: Phew... we think. Google's Public Policy Twitter account just belted out a denial of these claims, straight-up saying that the New York Times "is wrong." Here's the full tweet, which certainly makes us feel a bit more at ease. For now. "@NYTimes is wrong. We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet." Update 2: Verizon's now also issued a statement and, like Google, it's denying the claims in the original New York Times report. It's as follows: "The New York Times article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken. It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect."
Storyboard: A group effort
Roleplaying is like many other activities in MMOs -- it can't be done alone. That means that no matter how much of an antisocial player you might be for the rest of the game, you'll need a number of other people to make any roleplaying work. By extension, any longer storylines and character development require people working together with some level of consistency. You can technically have a character's development take place without the same audience, of course, but it won't mean as much to the late arrivals. Put very simply, you want a coherent overarching sequence of events that you can point to for your characters. This is going to require some level of group coordination, and group RP events are a great excuse for roleplaying bonds to form anyway, so it's fully endorsed. For this week's Storyboard, we're going to take a look at running a group event in the smoothest way possible, ranging from a simple one-off night of adventure to a long guild-wide storyline that ends with time travel. (You know the story is really getting overwrought when the time travel makes things simpler, see.)
Google, Verizon, Comcast, and more band together to form tech (and policy) advisory group
BITAG doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, as far as spoken acronyms go, but the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (also goes by TAG, for short) is looking to make (radio) waves. Facilitated by former FCC Chief Technologist (and University of Colorado at Boulder Adjunct Professor) Dale Hatfield, the group aims to "develop consensus on broadband network management practices and other related technical issues that can affect users' experience," which largely leads to addressing technical issues and making suggestions to policymakers. The group runs the gamut of major players in the broadband industry, including AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, DISH, EchoStar, Google, Intel, Level 3, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon. Naturally, the aforementioned companies already on board are lauding the move, and for its part the NCTA is happy to see a forum for tech and engineering experts to openly discuss issues and policies. Providing the counterargument would be the folks at DSL Reports, who show reserve that this may end up being nothing more than "policy dog and pony show" to avoid stricter government regulations on network neutrality. At this point that remains to be seen, as this organization doesn't seem to have even hit infancy yet. Expect more in the coming weeks as it continues to form and attempts to organize. We submit for your perusal the press release, just after the break.
Anti-Aliased Special Edition: Net neutrality, the FCC, Comcast, and Glenn Beck
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/What_net_neutrality_is_and_why_you_should_support_it'; So today's Wednesday and yes, I know, my column usually doesn't run on Wednesday. However, thanks the recent ruling against the Federal Communications Commission in their net neutrality case, it seems that there's a very relevant topic to talk about as soon as possible. Let me open by saying this -- net neutrality isn't another one of those overblown media stories, or something that we should put off on the backburner. Yet, while everyone's talking about net neutrality, few people are really talking about what it is, why you should care, and why you can't trust everything you're hearing about net neutrality. I've heard more than a few mistruths about the subject recently -- including a whole string of mistruths from everyone's favorite comedy network, Fox News. So today, let's set some things straight and talk about net neutrality. This is very serious stuff for the avid MMO gamer, the casual online gamer, or, well, anyone who touches the Internet.
US house Reps approve net neutrality bill, reveal semblance of sanity
We aren't out of the woods yet, but a U.S. House of Representatives panel has approved the net neutrality bill, a controversial proposal that would prohibit broadband providers from restricting access and impairing the speed of their competitors' content. Many feel this bill is crucial for market competitiveness and preserving the democratic nature of the internet. But instead of inciting a debate here at TUAW about a bill that is already setting media outlets everywhere ablaze, I'll just point you to a few resources to learn more about the issues, such as the Network neutrality Wikipedia entry, a Wired article and Macworld's report of the recent bill approval.
