IP Democracy: Experts at FCC Stanford Hearing: Innovation Needs an Open Internet

The FCC held the second of two hearings on broadband network management practices at Stanford University today. During the first half of the lengthy hearing, all but two of the witnesses condemned Comcast's decision to throttle or otherwise interfere with P2P applications on its broadband network. (Audio of the hearing is here and video is here.)

All five FCC Commissioners were there, as were an impressive line-up of academic, industry and special interest witnesses. But, no major broadband carrier chose to speak, a fact highlighted at the outset by Republican Chairman Kevin Martin.

Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, CableLabs and Pando Networks, which announced two days ago an alliance with Comcast to develop a P2P Bill of Rights, were invited to send witnesses, but each declined. (Not the wisest choice by the carriers although it's true they had little to gain by participating.)

Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps said that it's time to "insist upon action now" to rein in the ability of broadband carriers from using the we-need-to-manage-our-networks excuse in order to justify their desire to control competitive content and applications. Not only will consumers suffer, but innovation, the lifeblood of Silicon Valley, could be stifled.

"Inventors and creators need to know, upfront, that they have the right to innovate without going on bended knee to seek permission from a few who have amassed too much control in their own hands," Copps said.

Chairman Martin, who has cast a harsh spotlight on Comcast and the entire cable industry, echoed Copps concerns. "One of the most important factors is did the network operator provide adequate disclosure," he said, referring to the fact that Comcast didn't disclose it was throttling P2P traffic until after the fact. "Application designers need to know what will and what will not work on the network."

Two witnesses made particularly strong statements advocating some form of government action that maintains the current, non-discriminatory nature of the Internet. The first was always-impressive Stanford Law School professor Larry Lessig.

"Show me that innovation won't be harmed" by interfering with Internet traffic flows for the stated purpose of network management, he said. "Until you show me that, don’t allow this [an open Internet] to change."

Lessig placed the burden of proof on network operators to show that messing with the Internet is needed. And, he added, "we would need a very strong demonstration from people other than the coin-operated kind of experts that tend to populate Washington these days."

The other truly impressive witness was software engineer Robb Topolski. Topolski is the person who first discovered that Comcast was throttling P2P traffic, a discovery that led to the AP story that fueled the current concerns over broadband network management practices.

Topolski discovered Comcast's practice of using TCP reset packets to mimic failed Internet connections as a P2P traffic interference technique. An amateur barbershop quartet singer, Topolski experienced difficulties in sending performance videos to his friends. Upon investigation, he isolated Comcast's packet resets as the problem.

"Using reset flags is absolutely not standard network management," he said. "It's the great firewall of China technique."

Topolski thinks Comcast is dissembling when the company says it throttles P2P only during periods of peak congestion. "It occurs 24 hours a day," he said. "Comcast's statement that it only uses it during congestion does not match the practice."

Worse, despite Comcast's commitment to creating platform-neutral network management policies, the operator is still throttling traffic, Topolski said. "It's still impacting users, it's still impacting developers."

Lessig got a round of applause for likewise criticizing Comcast's honesty. "The most outrageous thing about this story is that you can't get the facts straight," he said. "If you're going to get this problem solved, the least you can do is get the story straight...It’s really an indictment on the trust for this particular company."

Not everybody was critical of Comcast or in favor of open network rules or rulings. Network engineer George Ou offered a tepid defense of Comcast, even pointing out that there is no need to ship the King James version of the Bible via P2P, as the AP reporter did, given that Comcast offers free storage on its server. Simply upload the Bible and allow your friends to download it, he suggested.

Rick Carnes of the Songwriters Guild of America said that "piracy has destroyed the profession of songwriting." He wants operators to be free to filter out unauthorized content. "At last it seemed possible that the Internet was leaving its infancy and finally discriminate between right and wrong."

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on April 17, 2008 10:22 PM to IP Democracy