03.18.14
Gemini version available ♊︎Internet News: Net Neutrality, Europe’s Turn, DNS Root Zone Liberated, World Wide Web Turns 25, Online Magna Carta
Net neutrality
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“Net neutrality: Is the Internet about to change?
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Prediction (NPR Series)
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A Very Special Proposal Anniversary For The World Wide Web
Spin of the Year
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Netflix and Comcast Are Only Trying to Help You (biased article because Bloomberg — like Murdoch — faces competition from the Internet and independent reporting)
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Around the World, Net Neutrality Is Not a Reality (manufacturing consent for end of net neutrality)
Pro-neutrality types have worried that a few giant companies will end up controlling, or at least mediating, the Internet experience for much of the population because of special deals they’ve struck with Internet providers for prioritized or subsidized data delivery.
But in the emerging economies of the world, that’s pretty much how things already work, thanks to a growing number of deals Google and Facebook have struck with mobile phone carriers from the Philippines to Kenya.
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Hey Verizon, we’re not as stupid as you think we are
You may have noticed that I’ve been writing regularly on Net neutrality and the impending balkanization of the Internet. I had originally intended to depart from that topic this week, but then I noticed the comments made by Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam last week (read the full transcript).
United States
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A Short Guide to the Internet’s Biggest Enemies
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual “Enemies of the Internet” index this week—a ranking first launched in 2006 intended to track countries that repress online speech, intimidate and arrest bloggers, and conduct surveillance of their citizens. Some countries have been mainstays on the annual index, while others have been able to work their way off the list. Two countries particularly deserving of praise in this area are Tunisia and Myanmar (Burma), both of which have stopped censoring the Internet in recent years and are headed in the right direction toward Internet freedom.
[...]
United States: This is the first time the US has made it onto RSF’s list. While the US government doesn’t censor online content, and pours money into promoting Internet freedom worldwide, the National Security Agency’s unapologetic dragnet surveillance and the government’s treatment of whistleblowers have earned it a spot on the index.
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Steve Wozniak admits he doesn’t have Netflix because his broadband is ‘too slow’
“Edward Snowden is a hero to me. I have very strong beliefs in freedom. I believe that Snowden believed, like I do, that the US has a right to freedom, and he has sacrified his life for this principal. I wish I had been so brave.”
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Amid NSA fallout, US to relinquish top internet oversight role
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In sudden announcement, US to give up control of DNS root zone
In a historic decision on Friday, the United States has decided to give up control of the authoritative root zone file, which contains all names and addresses of all top-level domain names.
Europe
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A step forward in protecting the Open Internet
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EU crucial vote on Net Neutrality
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Loopholes in EU telecom regulation threaten neutrality of the net
The neutrality of the internet is under threat after the European Parliament’s Industry Committee today voted yes to a new Regulation for a Telecom single Market. As they stand, the proposals include worrying loopholes that could allow the creation of a two-tiered internet. The full European Parliament will vote on the Regulation on 3rd April.
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Net Neutrality: Dangerous Loopholes Remain After Key Vote by Lead EU Parliament Committee
The “Industry” (ITRE) committee has just adopted its report on the Telecom Regulation and Net Neutrality. Despite improvements – especially in comparison with Neelie Kroes’ proposal –, the committee and its rapporteur, Pilar del Castillo Vera, bowed to the pressure of the telecom lobby, and major loopholes remain in the text. If the Internet as we know it is to be protected from the rent-seeking behaviour of big corporations who dominate the digital economy, these loopholes must be closed during the European Parliament vote in plenary session on 3 April.
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EU Parliament Committee to Cast Crucial Vote on Net Neutrality
On Tuesday, 18 March at 10 a.m., the “Industry” (ITRE) committee of the European Parliament will take a crucial decision for the future of Net Neutrality in Europe. The adoption of the report could mark a point of no return. Two conflicting visions for the future of the Internet oppose the two largest political groups in the EU Parliament, the social democratic party (S&D) and the conservative party (EPP). The outcome of the vote might be decided by the MEPs of the liberal group (ALDE) who appear not to have chosen which vision they will support, although their rapporteur, Jens Rohde, is pushing for the adoption of anti-Net Neutrality provisions. If adopted, these provisions would end the Internet as we know it, harming the freedom of communication and innovation.
Web History
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It’s Been 25 Years Since World Wide Web Debuted
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25 Years: How the Web began
When I was a young man, we had it rough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o’clock at night and lick the road clean with our tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife and while we had the Internet we didn’t have the Web. And, when you tell the young people today that… and they won’t believe ya!
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www turns 25, inventor Tim Berners-Lee talks on net neutrality
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Tim Berners-Lee: I Knew The Web Would Be Big
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Tim Berners-Lee: We Need an Online Magna Carta
Daddy of the internet Tim Berners-Lee has spoken out in an attempt to enshrine the independence of the world wide web, telling the Guardian that he believes we need an online Magna Carta to protect the rights of its users world wide.
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The browser’s resized future in a fragmented www world
Tim Berners-Lee’s first browser was simple and text-driven. The first successful browser, Mosaic, used graphics, and was originally the project of wunderkind Marc Andreessen of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois.
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World Wide Web proposal was submitted 25 years ago today
The world is celebrating the 25th birthday of the Web on Wednesday, and that’s because 25 years ago a proposal was written describing the basis for what would become the system of linked pages on which users read this article.
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The web at 25 is under threat from government and business
We now know that system as the World Wide Web and over the last twenty five years it has changed all our lives quite profoundly. In some ways it seems like yesterday but trying to remember what life was like without the Web is a real stretch these days – it’s a different world. Can you remember how you booked a holiday before the Web? How did you look things up in an encyclopedia? How did you buy your music? How did you show people your photos? How did you communicate with your friends and family? Of course the Web is just one part of a technological revolution that has enabled all these developments, but it is often described at the killer application that enabled the Internet to achieve it’s full potential. It was certainly a game changer.
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The World Wide Web is 25 years old
The exact date of the creation of the World Wide Web is debatable. After all it wasn’t until 7 August 1989 that Tim Berners-Lee posted his design for a system to communicate between computers to the alt.hypertext news group.
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The Future of Internet Freedom (and ironically enough, this article is behind a paywall)
Banning Independence
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FCC questions state laws that block cities from building their own broadband network
Frustrated with the sluggish speed and high cost of their Internet service providers, the residents of Wilson, N.C., decided a few years ago to take matters into their own hands – they would simply build their own connection.
The city council unanimously voted in 2006 to create a fiber-to-home network that today provides affordable high-speed Internet to homes and businesses, connects schools, and even supplies downtown Wilson with free Wi-Fi.
Incumbent companies Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink were forced to lower their prices and upgrade their service to remain competitive.
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