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Net Neutrality The case for a free and open internet

Written, designed, and photographed by Kyle Evans

Dedication This book is dedicated to my parents, because if they hadn’t given birth to me, I never would have been born. If I had never been born, I never would have been able to write this book.

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Acknowledgements I  would  like  to  acknowledge  all  of  the  people  who  helped  make  this  book  possible.  I  would  like  to  thank  my  Freestyle  teachers,  who  are  Mr.  Greco,  Ms.  Parkinson,  and  Mr.  Florendo.  Without  my  teachers,  I  would  never  have  obtained  the  skills  I  need  to  created  a  book  of  this  quality.  I  would  also  like  to  thank  the  people  I  interviewed,  who  helped  provide  substance  to  this  book.  Those  people  include  Dave  Evans,  Mohan  Avula,  and  the  former  pi-­ racy  scene  member  I  interviewed  who  asked  to  remain  anonymous.  I  wish  to  also  thank  my  fellow  Freestyle  students  that  provided  technical  support  IRU P\ ERRN ZKHQ PHVVLQJ ZLWK LQ'HVLJQ EHFDPH GLI¿FXOW , DOVR ZDQW WR acknowledge  my  fellow  Freestyle  students  because  not  only  did  they  help  me  get  my  book  working,  they  also  gave  me  inspiration  for  cool  photo-­ graphs.  The  wonderful  product  that  this  book  exists  of  now  is  the  result  of  many  contributions  from  a  variety  of  sources,  including  my  fellow  students.

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Table of Contents Title page..............................................................................................................1 Dedication............................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................4 Table of Contents.................................................................................................7 Foreword..............................................................................................................8 Introduction.......................................................................................................10 Chapter 1............................................................................................................14 Chapter 2...........................................................................................................20 Chapter 3...........................................................................................................26 Conclusion..........................................................................................................31 Bibliography.......................................................................................................33 7

Foreword

Since the 1970s, the internet has grown rapidly and become the quickest way for companies to do business. Originally invented by the military for secu-­ rity usage, the internet has become what is quite possibly the most important invention of the last few decades. As such, preserving the internet in a state that is open to anybody who wants to use it is notably important.

Like most teenagers, I frequent the internet for a variety of reasons. Wheth-­ er it be to get homework from Facebook friends or to browse funny cat pic-­ tures during periods of boredom, I, like many people, rely on the internet to get through the day. In only a few generations, the internet has greatly changed the way the world works.

When I began working on my book on net neutrality, I did so because I’ve always been interested by computers. Given that the internet is one of the key reasons people use computers, it only made sense to narrow down this exposi-­ tion to the internet itself.

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Over the last few years, along with many other frequenters of the internet I have been shocked by attempts of Congress to limit the openness of the inter-­ net. In 2011, Congress introduced multiple bills which would attempt to reduce online piracy, including the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Some people call me the space cowboy. Others call me the gangster of love.

But quite frankly, I like to think of myself as more that. A man who will look into the important issues, so that others don’t have to. The internet.

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Introduction   A  couple  years  back,  a  woman  named  Gertrude  Walton  was  accused  of  sharing  over  700  songs  illegally  on  the  internet,  making  them  available  to  download  for  free.  The  Recording  Industry  Associa-­ WLRQ RI $PHULFD RU 5,$$ IRU VKRUW ZDVQÂśW KDSS\ ZLWK *HUWUXGHÂśV DFWLRQV DQG DV D UHVXOW ÂżOHG D ODZVXLW against  the  woman  to  force  her  to  pay  for  damages.  The  whole  thing  was  a  typical  copyright  takedown,  done  regularly  by  companies  who  want  to  protect  their  copyright.  There  was  just  one  problem  with  this  case.  Gertrude  had  passed  away  over  a  year  ago.  Not  only  that,  but  when  the  RIAA  decided  to  go  after  Gertrude’s  daughter  to  force  her  to  pay  for  these  damages,  the  RIAA  learned  another  interesting  fact.  Gertrude’s  family  never  even  own  a  computer,  because  she  hated  them,  and  wanted  nothing  to  do  with  them.  But  how  does  a  woman  who  doesn’t  even  own  a  computer  illegally  upload  music  to  the  internet? Â

7KLV ZDV H[DFWO\ WKH TXHVWLRQ WKH UHFRUG FRPSDQ\œV ODZ\HUV SRQGHUHG RYHU EHIRUH WKH\ ¿QDOO\ decided  to  drop  the  case  after  a  few  months.  But  hey,  companies  make  mistakes;  they  dropped  their  lawsuit,  so  what’s  the  problem?  Well,  other  than  the  fact  that  this  isn’t  the  only  example  of  record  companies  suing  dead  people,  there’s  a  reason  companies  go  through  this  legal  process  when  they  accuse  somebody  of  a  crime.  The  sixth  amendment  to  our  Constitution  promises  the  right  to  a  fair  trial  to  anybody  accused  of  a  crime  in  order  to  protect  them  from  being  sent  to  jail  for  something  they  didn’t  do.  But  as  of  late,  this  idea  of  free  speech  on  the  internet  has  been  threatened  more  and  more  con-­ sistently.  The  whole  concept  of  net  neutrality,  the  very  cornerstone  of  freedom  on  the  internet,  has  recently  been  threatened  by  bills  in  Congress  such  as  the  Stop  Online  Piracy  Act,  the  Protect  Intel-­ 10

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lectual Property Act, and the Anti-­Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The main purpose of these bills is to help curb internet piracy, which is responsible for a loss of $11 to $12 billion dollars annually in the software industry (Gale). Companies that own copyrights being violated by software piracy are actively encouraging the government to be more diligent in combating this problem.

There’s no doubt that software piracy is a problem. But the ways Congress has attempted and continues to attempt to solve it only damage the internet by violating the principles of net neutrality for the sake of limiting software piracy. As Christopher Marsden notes in his book Net Neutrality: To-­ wards a Co-­Regulatory Solution, even the president has acknowledged the importance of the internet.

As Obama stated in an interview:

“The big telephone and cable companies want to change the Internet as we know it. They say that they want to create high-­sped lanes on the Internet and strike exclusive contractual agreements with Internet content-­providers for access to those high-­speed lanes. Those of us who can’t pony up the cash for these high-­speed connections will be relegated to the slow lanes. We can’t have a situation in which the corporate duopoly dictates the future of the internet and that’s why I’m supporting what is called net neutrality.” (Marsden, 21).

Essentially, in attempts to undermine digital piracy, the age of internet discrimination will begin.

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Chapter  1

What  is  net  neutrality?  Imagine  that  you  are  now  the  CEO  of  Facebook.  Other  than  having  your  personal  life  exposed  in  the  movie  The  Social  Network,  you  now  have  a  pretty  cool  life.  You’re  the  youngest  billionaire  in  the  world,  having  launched  the  second  most  popular  site  on  the  internet  only  eight  years  ago.  Not  a  bad  deal  by  any  standards.  As  the  CEO  of  Facebook,  you’re  aware  that  one  of  the  reasons  people  use  your  site  is  to  share  content  with  your  friends.  This  includes  status  updates,  photos,  videos,  and  anything  else  the  average  person  wants  to  share  with  their  friends  and  family.  Some  of  the  things  people  most  commonly  share  is  music  and  music  videos,  posting  them  on  each  others  walls,  saying  “aww  hell  naw  brah  this  song  is  sick.â€?  In  itself,  this  is  pretty  harmless.  People  get  to  share  their  favorite  songs  with  each  other  quickly,  it’s  a  nice  website  you’ve  got.  But  obviously,  when  people  share  music  with  each  other  on  Facebook,  that  content  doesn’t  be-­ long  to  them.  It  belongs  to  the  copyright  company  that  helped  create  that  music.  And  if  the  copyright  company  doesn’t  want  their  content  to  be  shared,  then  that’s  their  right.  So  let’s  say  a  copyright  com-­ pany  doesn’t  want  their  music  to  be  shared  over  Facebook.  This  is  their  right,  and  unfortunately,  even  though  you’re  the  world’s  youngest  CEO,  there’s  not  much  you  can  do  about  it.  Under  the  current  system,  any  company  that  doesn’t  want  their  content  on  Facebook  has  a  few  options.  The  most  prevalent  one  is  simply  asking  Facebook  to  remove  the  content.  They  can  contact  Facebook,  issue  a  subpoena  to  remove  the  content,  and  Facebook  will  do  so  if  they  agree.  If  Facebook  GRHVQÂśW DJUHH WKH\ÂśOO PRVW OLNHO\ JR WKURXJK D VKRUW OHJDO GLVSXWH DQG UHVROYH WKH FRQĂ€LFW 1LQH WLPHV out  of  ten,  however,  Facebook  just  removes  the  content  to  keep  everybody  happy.  Recently,  legislation  has  been  going  through  congress  that  is  attempting  to  change  the  way  this  14

Not all tech savvy people look this cool. Dave Evans, the Chief Futurist of the Internet Business Solutions Group, gives his views on net neutrality in an exclusive interview in the coming pages. Also, does anybody ever read the captions?

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content  would  potentially  be  removed  from  Facebook.  Acts  such  as  the  Stop  Online  Piracy  Act,  Pro-­ tect  Intellectual  Property  Act,  and  the  Anti-­Counterfeiting  Trade  Agreement  have  all  tried  in  recent  months  to  change  the  way  this  content  is  protected  on  the  internet  (Harvey).  If  these  acts  were  to  be  passed,  copyright  companies  would  no  longer  have  to  contact  Facebook  to  have  their  content  removed  from  their  website.  Instead,  these  companies  would  be  given  tools  that  allow  them  to  remove  the  site  directly.  What  this  means  is  that  copyright  companies  would  be  directly  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  content  that’s  posted  on  Facebook,  Twitter,  Google,  etc.  all  in  the  name  of  protecting  their  content.

,Q WKHRU\ WKLV LV ÂżQH %XW ELOOV VXFK DV WKH 'LJLWDO 0LOOHQLXP &RS\ULJKW $FW ZKLFK ZDV SDVVHG in  1999,  have  shown  that  such  legislation  is  ripe  for  abuse  (“Unsafe  Harborsâ€?).  The  Digital  Millenium  Copyright  Act  is  cited  by  legal  professionals  as  digital  tyranny,  being  utilized  to  remove  content  that  the  companies  disagree  with  (Lee).  If  net  neutrality  were  violated  by  passing  any  of  these  acts,  it  would  only  become  easier.  The  internet  relies  on  the  ability  to  be  open  and  free.  Without  this  idea  of  having  a  free  and  open  internet,  the  very  purposes  of  the  internet  become  null  and  void.  Christopher  Marsden,  author  of  “Net Â

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Neutrality:  Towards  a  Co-­Regulatory  Solution�  explains  the  idea  that  net  neutrality  is  a  vital  instru-­ ment  for  the  internet,  and  by  violating  such  rights  so  that  copyright  companies   can  make  more  money  is  ludicrous.  Similarly,  in  an  interview  with  Dave  Evans,  another  passionate  response  is  given.  As  Dave  de-­ scribes  it,  The  internet  is  where  it  is  today  because  of  innovation,  and  innovation  comes  from  people  being  able  to  be  creative  and  to  try  new  things,  and  when  you  remove  net  neutrality,  or  you  start  plac-­ ing  restrictions  on  people,  you  start  putting  barriers  to  innovation,  and  therefore  you  start  putting  barriers  to  advancing  the  internet.  In  fact,  it’s  not  even  just  the  internet,  Any  time  you  put  barriers  on  VRPHWKLQJ FUHDWLYLW\ DQG \RX VWDUW SXWWLQJ XS ZDOOV IRU SHRSOH LW PDNHV LW GLI¿FXOW DQG SHRSOH ZLOO always  take  the  path  of  least  resistance�  (Evans).

Since  it’s  a  part  of  his  job,  Dave  Evans  often  spends  a  lot  of  time  on  the  internet.  But  that’s  not  the  only  work  Dave  does.  He  also  works  a  lot  on  individual  projects,  programming  software  that  seems  very  futuristic.  It  meets  his  title  of  “Chief  Futurist�  quite  well.

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“The Internet is the most powerful communications tool humans have ever created. Placing limits on this tool would be akin to placing tape on ones mouth.”

-­Dave Evans

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Chapter  2 So  who  cares?

 Dave  Evans  is  the  Chief  Futurist  for  Cisco  Systems,  as  well  as  the  chief  technologist  for  their  Internet  Business  Solutions  Group.  According  to  him,  the  internet  is  one  of  the  most  necessary  instru-­ ments  for  innovation  that  we  have  today.   “The  Internet  is  the  most  powerful  communications  tool  humans  have  ever  created.  Placing  lim-­ its  on  this  tool  would  be  akin  to  placing  tape  on  ones  mouthâ€?  (Evans).  The  internet  has  always  been  a  place  where  one  can  start  a  small  business  cheap  and  easily.  eBay  was  founded  so  the  owner’s  wife  could  sell  Pez  dispensers,  and  is  now  the  largest  auction  site  on  the  LQWHUQHW :KLOH VWDUWLQJ D SK\VLFDO EXVLQHVV LV FRVWO\ ZLWK H[SHQVHV VXFK DV RIÂżFH OHDVLQJ RU HPSOR\HH contracting,  a  website  can  be  started  for  as  little  as  $20  -­  the  rough  cost  of  a  domain  name  and  server.  But  if  net  neutrality  were  to  be  violated,  the  costs  of  starting  a  business  on  the  internet  would  be  increased  dramatically.  In  order  to  start  a  small  business  online,  anybody  who  wants  to  do  so  would  EH UHTXLUHG WR FRPSO\ ZLWK WKH WHUPV GHÂżQHG E\ DQ\ DFW YLRODWLQJ QHW QHXWUDOLW\ ,Q WKH FDVH RI WKH examples  listed  previously,  this  includes  being  able  to  respond  to  a  take  down  request  to  have  their  content  removed.  In  essence,  internet  companies  would  be  required  to  actively  police  their  sites  in  order  to  get  things  done.  But  is  this  feasible?  Facebook  has  over  700  status  updates  posted  to  its  site  every  second,  Twit-­ ter  has  over  600  tweets  posted  every  second,  and  an  hours  worth  of  video  is  uploaded  to  YouTube  every  second.  Monitoring  all  of  this  content  is  virtually  impossible.  Let’s  go  back  to  Dave  Evans  for  a  second.  Among  other  things,  Dave  is  the  founder  of  Wetware  LLC,  a  small  company  he  and  his  co-­worker  started  as  a  side  project  from  Cisco.  The  company  creates  software  that  allows  computers  to  integrate  over  the  internet  in  a  seamless  experience.  The  product  works  excellently,  but  requires  internet  usage  to  use.  If  ISPs  charged  him  extra  to  deliver  content  to  his  customers,  he  would  be  out  a  good  chunk  of  change.  In  essence,  violations  of  net  neutrality  make  running  small  internet  based  businesses  impossible.

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No, this isn’t a computer hacker, although it may look like it. This is just a student working away on one of his proj-­ ects. While the internet comes in many shapes and forms, the one we are most accustomed to is the familiar form of a web browser. But on the technical side of things, the internet is actually a series of complex pieces of code that interact with each other. In essence, the internet is a series of tubes that interact with each other.

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Since  the  1970s,  computers  have  become  increasingly  common.  Originally  created  to  be  used  by  the  internet,  they  now  exist  in  nearly  every  household  in  America.  Some  countries  such  as  Sweden  are  pushing  to  make  internet  usage  a  right,  not  a  privelage.  This  would  mean  that  people  are  granted  internet  as  one  of  their  rights.  That  would  make  an  LQWHUHVWLQJ ¿UVW DPHQGPHQW IUHHGRP RI VSHHFK UHOLJLRQ SUHVV DVVHPEO\ SHWLWLRQ DQG LQWHUQHW

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Chapter 3 what next?

In attempts to limit net neutrality, the idea comes to two main circumstances. One is the attempt to limit piracy, and the other is the cost that ISPs are forced to pay in order to make up for bandwidth and other issues. But will either of these really be curbed?

Let’s start with piracy. Music piracy is fairly common amongst teenagers, many of which go to our school. Mohan Avula, a junior at Los Altos High School, does not believe that violations of net neutrality would limit his ability, or desire, to pirate things.

“I don’t think I would really stop pirating things. Those bills are more targeted towards the sites that host illegal stuff” (Avula).

In a sense, Mohan is right. The bills that Congress frequently tries to pass typically do target the websites that host illegal content. But would these sites really be affected if any of these bills were to pass?

Not according to an anonymous source, who was interviewed about his involvements with the piracy “scene”. The “scene” in the world of piracy consists of the people who create the piracy websites and upload the content illegally, allowing other people to access it. He believes that by passing these acts, internet piracy would not be curbed in the slightest.

“It’s all about notoriety and feeling like a badass,” he said. “These bills Congress is trying to pass doesn’t solve any of the problems, just waste money” (Anonymous).

Scene members, or those who actively participate in the world of piracy, typically hang out in what are known as Internet Relay Chat channels, also known as IRC channels (Anderson). According to our anonymous source, the bills Congress is attempting to pass are in no way going after the real issue, but simply going after chump change.

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“It’s all about notoriety and feeling like a badass. These bills Congress is trying to pass doesn’t solve any of the problems, just waste money.”

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-­Anonymous

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While it’s tough to say what the best way to end internet piracy is, the ways Congress has attempted to do so aren’t working. Net neutrality is one of the most important aspects of the internet, in order to preserve an internet where anybody can post anything they want online. The government has attempted to limit net neutrality in the past, but it is incredibly important that we disregard their efforts and push forward with innovation.

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Conclusion  Internet  piracy  is  bad.  But  internet  commerce  is  good.  Where  can  we  draw  the  line?

:KLOH LW LV TXLWH GLI¿FXOW WR VD\ ZKDW WKH EHVW ZD\ WR VWRS LQWHUQHW SLUDF\ LV multiple  testimonies  given  here  examine  the  fact  that  piracy,  while  a  growing  SUREOHP LV EHFRPLQJ TXLWH GLI¿FXOW WR VWRS %XW OLPLWLQJ IUHHGRP RQ WKH LQWHU-­ net  isn’t  the  way  to  do  that.  Internet  piracy  is  bad,  nobody  wants  to  argue  against  that.  But  the  internet  goes  beyond  the  scale  of  internet  piracy.  The  internet  is  the  most  open  source  IRU LQIRUPDWLRQ WR EH VKDUHG DQG IRU WKH IXWXUH WR EH DFFHVVHG DW RXU ¿QJHUWLSV It  is  necessary  for  innovation  to  continue  that  we  continue  to  support  the  inter-­ net  and  prevent  it  from  being  damaged  by  big  companies.

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