Verizon challenges FCC Net neutrality rules - Jan. 20, 2011

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http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/20/technology/verizon_fcc/index.htm
By Laurie Segall, staff reporterJanuary 21, 2011: 10:54 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Verizon filed a legal appeal on Thursday challenging the Federal Communications Commission's authority to enforce the new Net neutrality rules it adopted last month.
"We believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers," Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel Michael E. Glover said in a written statement

On December 21, the FCC's commissioners voted three-to-two to adopt so-called "Net neutrality" rules, which would give the agency regulatory power over Internet service providers. The agency's goal is to prevent Internet providers from blocking or "unreasonably discriminating" against Web content, services or applications.
But the FCC's legal grounds for expanding its authority is shaky, and industry observers predicted that Internet providers would take the issue to court.
"Undoubtedly, there's going to be litigation against it," Rebecca Tushnet, a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in digital media, said at the time.
Enter Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500). The company was already in the thick of the Net neutrality fight after striking a backroom deal with Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) last year that it hoped would head off new FCC rules. It didn't.
The FCC has been through the legal wringer several times in its attempts to police Internet providers.
In 2007, Comcast -- the nation's largest Internet provider -- blocked its subscribers from using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The FCC tried to force Comcast to stop, and Comcast fought back with a lawsuit challenging the FCC's authority in the matter. In April 2010, a U.S. court of appeals ruled in Comcast's favor.

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Australian Government To Force Internet Users To Install State-Approved Software

3 minutes ago from todaysworld

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  Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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  The Australian government is set to intensify its war against Internet freedom by forcing web users to install state-approved anti-virus software. If they fail to do so, they will be denied an Internet connection, or if their computer is later infected, the user's connection will be terminated.
  "AUSTRALIANS would be forced to install anti-virus and firewall software on their computers before being allowed to connect to the internet under a new plan to fight cyber crime. And if their computer did get infected, internet service providers like Telstra and Optus could cut off their connection until the problem was resolved," reports News.com.au.
  A 260-page report released by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications outlines a plan to mandate Internet users to install government-approved software before their Internet connection can be activated.
  Of course, the vast majority of Internet users already use anti-virus software, but by creating the precedent of having to conform to government mandates simply to get online, this opens the door to later requiring government permission to use the Internet at all, as well as a Chinese-style ID verification system which will prevent "undesirables" from using the web.
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  Efforts to place restrictions on the internet are unfolding apace in Australia where the government is implementing a mandatory and wide-ranging Internet filter modeled on that of the Communist Chinese government.
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  The official justification for the filter is to block child pornography, however, as the watchdog group Electronic Frontiers Australia has pointed out, the law will also allow the government to block any website it desires while the pornographers can relatively easily skirt around the filters.
  Earlier this year, the Wikileaks website published a leaked secret list of sites slated to be blocked by Australia's state-sponsored parental filter.
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  The filter will even block web-based games deemed unsuitable for anyone over the age of fifteen, according to the Australian government.
  Senator Joe Lieberman on Sunday called for the United States to move towards a a Chinese-style system of Internet control. Under Lieberman's 197-page Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PDF), President Obama would be given a 'kill switch' to shut down parts of the Internet.
  Constant fearmongering about cyber attacks is the cover for a global assault on Internet freedom by authorities. The web is being overtaken by independent media outlets which are now beginning to eclipse establishment news organs. This has enabled activists and the politically oppressed to expose government atrocities and cover-ups at lightning pace, something the system is keen to curtail.
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Cyber attack 'could fell US within 15 minutes'

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clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Soon internet service providers are in meltdown. Reports come in of large refinery fires and explosions in Philadelphia and Houston. Chemical plants malfunction, releasing lethal clouds of chlorine. Air traffic controllers report several mid-air collisions, while subway trains crash in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. More than 150 cities are suddenly blacked out. Tens of thousands of Americans die in an attack comparable to a nuclear bomb in its devastation. Yet it would take no more than 15 minutes and involve not a single terrorist or soldier setting foot in the United States. The scenario is contained the pages of his book, Cyber War: The Next National Security Threat, written with Robert Knake. "The biggest secret about cyber war may be that at the very same time the US prepares for offensive cyber war, it is continuing policies that make it impossible to defend effectively from cyber attack," says the book.

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Open Wi-Fi 'outlawed' by Digital Economy Bill

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clipped from news.zdnet.co.uk The government will not exempt universities, libraries and small businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this week. This would leave many organisations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access. "This is going to be a very unfortunate measure for small businesses, particularly in a recession, many of whom are using open free Wi-Fi very effectively as a way to get the punters in," Edwards said. "Even if they password protect, they then have two options — to pay someone like The Cloud to manage it for them, or take responsibility themselves for becoming an ISP effectively, and keep records for everyone they assign connections to, which is an impossible burden for a small café."

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Global treaty may make your ISP spy on you

clipped from www.newscientist.com Documents from talks on a secret global copyright deal have leaked online, various sources are reporting. The documents discussed are said to confirm that internet service providers could be compelled to constantly sift through their customers' data looking for copyright transgressions. The European Union's data protection chief has said that such requirements could curtail individuals' civil liberties. It's the latest twist in the tale of ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has been swiftly and secretly negotiated by the 27 nations of the European Union, the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. ISPs told New Scientist in December that such technology will not only slow downloads, but puts in place technology that could be used for snooping and censorship. In France, the government has already introduced a measure along these lines

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