05.05.09
European Internet Falls Ill
Summary: Europe’s Internet is under attack freedom-wise and bandwidth-wise
ABOUT HALF of Boycott Novell’s readers are located in the United States, but two of our readers from Europe wanted to pass on timely information. Given the nature of such information, this medium seems more or less suitable.
An anonymous reader wrote:
I suppose you are aware of this campaign: “European Emergency!: on May 6th some of the Europarlamentaries intend to finish with the freedom of the Internet.” Blackout Europe says, ““The European open internet is under imminent threat.”
Our reader explains: “You might consider writing to the MEPs so that they can vote for amendments that would assure no disconnection or Web censorship is executed upon the citizens without a judge ordering it. I saw a video of a MEP, Nigel Farage, and he seemed quite honest on the in favor for a referendum, I know he is a right-wing euroskeptic, but maybe he would be receptive to an e-mail. (I am probably wrong, just an idea). In case the telecom package gets approved without any modification that guarantees our civil rights and freedoms, we will be a great step closer to 1984. Let’s hope not.”
A separate reader complains about Internet speeds being stifled in the UK. He went on about a BBC program which covered 100 MB fiber link to people’s homes, explaining that:
The BBC had a program on last night about fiber-to-home in parts of London near a football stadium. They fired it up and then went to the iPlayer site, only it stuck at 32 MB a second. They then went to an Ubuntu download site and downloaded an ISO at 7.76 MB. Finally they recommended the 100 MB link for a number of client PCs.
[...]
Well, it’s interesting as to what it says about the state of broadband in a ‘developed’ country in mid 2009. iirc from the show, ***Korea*** has better broadband than the UK. There was also an interview with a (BT?) telecom rep explaining as to how people don’t want fiber to their homes or it wouldn’t be worth it, which is why it stops at the street and then goes copper.
They then do a demo of iPlayer at 100MB, which is chocked off by the BBC at 32MB. The point being that the demo, on the BBC, of iPlayer at 100 MB, demonstrates that it don’t work. This is a consumer program, presumably designed to enthuse us to upgrade to fiber (at great expense), and it demonstrates that there isn’t a service out there that works at 100 MB !!
My comment is, why should the consumer upgrade to 100 MB broadband when there isn’t any services to handle that kind of traffic? And the media providers won’t supply rich-fast services as the link to the consumer won’t yet carry it.
It is worth adding that USENET too is under attack, but Internet freedom is not our focus here. █
SubSonica said,
May 6, 2009 at 4:44 am
Not just in Europe. There seems to be a coordinated effort worldwide lead by our -supposed- representatives to censor internet and render dissenting voices illegal. Look at what they are trying in the US:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/05/1734238&from=rss
This would complement the EU Telecom Package in the U.S.
The lesson is that you are deprived of your freedoms the very moment you stop fighting for them.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 6, 2009 at 5:30 am
I’ve always argued that freedom of speech is an euphemistic illusion; people are deprived when they gain too strong a voice or level of influence. Just watch what happens in Italy right now.