Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: net neutrality

  • ISPs: beware of paranoid bloggers with a persecution complex, warns Ofcom

    ISPs: beware of paranoid bloggers with a persecution complex, warns Ofcom

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Exclusive Ofcom will encourage ISPs to be transparent about traffic management, but won’t ask them to detail the information in a standard format, according to meeting notes seen by The Register.

    The regulator is sounding out opinion from ISPs and consumer groups on traffic management, which it sees as the only aspect of the US "Net Neutrality" debates applicable to the UK.

    In the US, the debate was politicized and emotive; pressure from left-wing activists attempted to push both … Read More

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  • How neutrality locks in the web’s ‘Hyper Giants’

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    By the mid 1990s it had become pointless to compete with Microsoft in operating systems and office software – and investment in potential competitors dried up. The best you could hope for as a software company was to carve out a niche as part of the Windows Office system; this was a very small niche indeed.

    The same thing is happening today with web services. But what Google and other web giants are doing goes largely unnoticed, even by analysts, … Read More

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  • Net Neutrality: the Good Guys always were white

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Delicious news from the United States, where ‘Net Neutrality’ is again being recast for a new political purpose.

    The term long since ceased to mean anything – it now means anything you want it to mean. But as a rule of thumb, advocating Neutrality means giving your support to general Goodness on the internets, and opposing general Badness. Therefore, supporting Neutrality means you yourself are a Good Person, by reflection, and people who oppose Neutrality are Bad People.

    This is … Read More

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  • Google’s doing to Twitterbook what it’s doing to copyright

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Google has two prongs to its long-term strategy, but Wave, the “digital dashboard” it unveiled last week, casts light on a third.

    One strategy is to drive down the value of copyright material on the internet to zero. Google has a ruthless and calculating view of the real value of stuff. It reasons that if all we do on the net is talk to each other, then it’s merely fulfilling the role of a switchboard operator at a Soviet-era state … Read More

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  • Google writes the internet’s first rule book

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    The regulator’s rule book for deciding what is permissible on today’s roads is very thick indeed. The content, behaviour and performance of “stuff on roads” is massive, and grows by the day. Try hot-rodding your lawnmower – or deciding that on Thursdays, you will only make left turns, and see how far you get.

    By contrast, the regulator’s rule book for deciding what is permissible on the internet – its content, behaviour and performance – couldn’t be simpler. There isn’t … Read More

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  • FCC: making a rulebook out of metaphors

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Regulators and network operators across the world will be watching events unfold in Washington DC with some astonishment today, as the US telecoms industry becomes embroiled in a bureaucratic farce.

    Late last week, the US regulator the Federal Communications Commission issued a landmark assertion of authority over how American operators should manage their networks – and announced a new policy framework. We won’t know what this policy framework will be for days or perhaps weeks – and the statements issued … Read More

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