Internet Freedom

Google Fiber Isn’t The Only Revolution In KC

June 25, 2014 Carl Franzen, www.theverge.com Create! Google Fiber, Internet Freedom, Kansas City

Kansas City, a metropolitan area of about 2 million that straddles the border between Kansas state and Missouri, seems an unlikely place to see what the future of internet connectivity could look like. But nearly three years after Google announced that this midwestern metropolis best known for jazz and barbecue would become the first place in the world to get the company’s experimental, ultra-high-speed broadband internet service — Google Fiber — Kansas City is looking more futuristic. Just not in the way Google or Kansas Citians originally anticipated. That’s because Kansas City is also home to another experimental broadband internet service effort that hasn’t received nearly as much international attention as Google Fiber. Just over a year ago, right around the same time Google actually began installing Fiber here, a ragtag alliance of affordable-internet advocates including a jazz club proprietor, a Pentecostal Christian minister and a former Occupy Wall Street protester began building their own nonprofit wireless internet service specifically designed for low-income households, a system they call the KC Freedom Network. Even though it can’t match Google Fiber in terms of raw speed, the KC Freedom Network offers something to users they say Google does not: truly affordable internet.

Join The Open Wireless Movement

June 24, 2014 Open Wireless, www.openwireless.org Create! Internet Freedom, Privacy, Technology

What is the Open Wireless Movement? Imagine a future with ubiquitous open Internet. We envision a world where, in any urban environment: Dozens of open networks are available at your fingertips. Tablets, watches, and other new devices can automatically join these networks to do nifty things. The societal expectation is one of sharing, and, as a result, wireless Internet is more efficient. The false notion that an IP address could be used as a sole identifier is finally a thing of the past, creating a privacy-enhancing norm of shared networks. We're working with a coalition of volunteer engineers to build technologies that will let users open their wireless networks without compromising their security or sacrificing bandwidth. And we're working with advocates to help change the way people and businesses think about Internet service. Join the movement now.

Save The Internet. Calling All Poets!

June 22, 2014 Staff, www.creativeresistance.org Create! Arts, Internet, Internet Freedom, Poetry

Right now the Federal Communications Commission is accepting comments from the public on its proposal for Net Neutrality. If passed, this proposal would allow corporations like Verizon and Comcast to cut deals with corporate websites in exchange for priority access to its Internet users. In other words, smaller websites, independent artists, musicians and social justice advocates who use the open Internet to reach audiences not accessible in a heavily corporatized and consolidated media would be relegated to a second-class Internet. Between now and July 15th as technical comments flood the FCC, we want to flood the Internet with Haikus. Join poets like Hakim Bellamy, Sham-e-Ali Nayem, Emmanuel Ortiz and others as we call for #InternetHaikus. Here’s how it works: 1. Write a Haiku about the Internet. What’s a haiku? Check this out! 2. Post your Haiku on Twitter and make sure to include the hashtag #InternetHaiku

The Case For Net Neutrality

June 18, 2014 Marvin Ammori, www.foreignaffairs.com Educate! Barack Obama, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

For all the withering criticism leveled at the White House for its botched rollout of HealthCare.gov, that debacle is not the biggest technology-related failure of Barack Obama’s presidency. That inauspicious distinction belongs to his administration’s incompetence in another area: reneging on Obama’s signature pledge to ensure “net neutrality,” the straightforward but powerful idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all traffic that goes through their networks the same. Net neutrality holds that ISPs shouldn’t offer preferential treatment to some websites over others or charge some companies arbitrary fees to reach users. By this logic, AT&T, for example, shouldn’t be allowed to grant iTunes Radio a special “fast lane” for its data while forcing Spotify to make do with choppier service. On the campaign trail in 2007, Obama called himself “a strong supporter of net neutrality” and promised that under his administration, the Federal Communications Commission would defend that principle. But in the last few months, his FCC appears to have given up on the goal of maintaining an open Internet. This past January, a U.S. federal appeals court, in a case brought by Verizon, struck down the net neutrality rules adopted by the FCC in 2010, which came close to fulfilling Obama’s pledge despite a few loopholes.

Open Letter To FCC Employees On Real Net Neutrality

June 16, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Organize! FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality, Whistleblowers

Dear FCC Employees, We have spent a good deal of time at the FCC camping in front of the Maine Ave. entrance, leafleting and rallying to reclassify the Internet as a common carrier. First, we want to thank you for your support. Overwhelmingly employees at the FCC have supported an Internet free of discrimination. Many of you want what is best for the country – that the greatest communication tool ever invented continue to be a source for democratization of mass communication, creative entrepreneurship and a platform for growth and creativity. Second, we want you to know you are not alone. You are not alone inside the FCC nor are you alone among the American people. After our encampment and hundreds of thousands of emails and phone calls, the FCC Commissioners voted to allow reclassifying the Internet as a common carrier to be included in the rulemaking process.

Dangers Of A World Without Net Neutrality

June 15, 2014 April Glaser of EFF, www.truthout.org Educate! FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Last month the FCC released its proposal for America's new network neutrality rules. Unfortunately, the agency's proposal included rules that would permit Internet providers to prioritize certain websites, e.g., make deals with some services for a faster and better path to subscribers. While the FCC claims it is not endorsing such deals, the proposed rules will inevitably be read as exactly that. The parties most threatened by this kind of network discrimination are those who are trying to make novel and unanticipated uses of the network and who cannot afford payola. But innovators need more than a level playing field – they need specific details about how Internet providers manage their networks so that they can figure out how best to maintain current offerings and develop new products. To see why, let's fill in some blanks.

Comcast’s False Promise To Poor Americans Of Cheap Internet

June 12, 2014 Allan Holmes, www.publicintegrity.org Educate! FCC, Internet, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality, Poverty

As Comcast Corp. tries to convince the federal government to permit it to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45 billion, opponents of the deal will inevitably bring up people like Ed. Every morning at 8:15, Ed climbs into his red, 1999 Mazda sedan and drives 15 miles down Main Street in Scranton, Pa. He passes mom-and-pop sandwich shops, a shuttered elementary school and a computerized shooting gallery for archery on his way to a friend’s 86-year-old house where coal miners once lived — and where there’s an Internet connection. Ed, who comes here because he can’t afford the parking fees at a library six miles away, first reads his email and then turns his attention to job sites such as snapjobsearch, glassdoor, Monster and Craigslist. He’s been following this routine for nearly four years, looking for an opening in the hotel or restaurant business where he’s got some experience, but he has yet to land a job. Without the Internet connection, he’d have no hope.

Google Hangout On FCC Internet Slow Lane Proposal, June 14

June 11, 2014 Josh Tabish, www.openmedia.ca Organize! FCC, Internet, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

If you value the Internet, it's time to speak out - or risk being forced into an Internet slow lane. On Saturday June 14 at Noon ET (11am CT / 9am PT), Net2 Northern Michigan invites you to join an online round-table discussion to learn how to submit comments on the Federal Communication Commission’s proposed Internet rules, and what a potential loss of net neutrality could mean for you. Net2 has chapters around North America that create local-meetups for change makers in the technology and non-profit world. Whether you work in the business, education, nonprofit, or government sectors, or just use the Internet for personal communication, then you need to be aware of the full implications of what the FCC is proposing. The roundtable discussion will be broadcast as a Google Hangout and will be streamed to YouTube. The event is free and all are encouraged to participate.

Steve Wozniak To The FCC: Keep The Internet Free

June 9, 2014 Steve Wozniak, www.theatlantic.com Educate! FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

To whom it may concern: I have always loved humor and laughter. As a young engineer I got an impulse to start a Dial-a-Joke in the San Jose/San Francisco area. I was aware of such humor services in other countries, such as Australia. This idea came from my belief in laughter. I could scarcely believe that I was the first person to create such a simple service in my region. Why was I the first? This was 1972 and it was illegal in the U.S. to use your own telephone. It was illegal in the U.S. to use your own answering machine. Hence it also virtually impossible to buy or own such devices. We had a monopoly phone system in our country then. The major expense for a young engineer is the rent of an apartment. The only answering machine I could legally use, by leasing (not purchasing) it from our phone company, the Codaphone 700, was designed for businesses like theaters. It was out of the price range of creative individuals wanting to try something new like dial-a-joke. This machine leased for more than a typical car payment each month. Despite my great passion and success with Dial-a-Joke, I could not afford it and eventually had to stop after a couple of years. By then, a San Francisco radio station had also started such a service. I believe that my Dial-a-Joke was the most called single line (no extensions) number in the country at that time due to the shortness of my jokes and the high popularity of the service.

Cable Companies Astroturfing To End Net Neutrality

June 8, 2014 Lee Fang, www.news.vice.com Educate! Astroturfing, Corporatism, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Consumer advocates everywhere are demanding that the Federal Communication Commission continue down its current path for shelving net neutrality and allowing a two-tiered internet. That is, if cable company-created front groups and other industry-funded organizations are to be believed. The controversy, at the moment, rests on a legal distinction. A federal lawsuit filed by Verizon has forced the FCC into a corner by creating a standard under which effective net-neutrality rules—which ensure all internet traffic is treated equally—can only be reached, according to most analysts, by classifying the internet as a "common carrier," or in other words, a public utility. Such a distinction would allow the FCC to demand that internet service providers, like Comcast or Verizon, are not allowed to create internet slow lanes and fast lanes. To the surprise of probably no one, ISPs are enraged at the prospect of being classified as a utility and are fighting back. But the attacks are not fully transparent. Many of the organizations protesting a move toward classifying ISPs as a utility, which is the only likely option for enacting net neutrality, are funded by the ISP lobby.

WordPress Resets The Net

June 8, 2014 Paul Sieminski, www.en.blog.wordpress.com Resist! Internet Freedom, Privacy, Reset the net, Surveillance

If we properly encrypt our sites and devices, we can make mass surveillance much more difficult. We’ll be serving pages only over SSL for all *.wordpress.com subdomains by the end of the year. A year ago today, we joined the world in shock on learning that governments were spying on internet users around the world. Tapping internet service providers’ undersea cables, intentionally and secretly weakening encryption products, surreptitiously collecting everything from call metadata to photos sent over the internet by US citizens — nothing was off limits. Just as troubling as the revelations themselves is the fact that since last summer, little if anything has changed. Despite a lot of rhetoric, our three branches of government in the United States have not made many concrete steps toward truly protecting citizens from unchecked government surveillance. Automattic has been a strong supporter of efforts to reform government surveillance. We’ve supported reform legislation in Congress, and participated in the Day We Fight Back, earlier this year. More importantly, we aim to make our own legal processes for securing the information our users entrust to us as transparent and protective as possible.

New Evidence Shows FBI Set Up Jeremy Hammond

June 8, 2014 Firedoglake, www.news.firedoglake.com Educate! Entrapment, FBI, Internet Freedom, Jeremy Hammond

New evidence backs up Jeremy Hammond’s story that he was set up by the FBI and the hack of Stratfor was not even his idea in the first place. The FBI previously claimed it was unaware of potential computer hacking until it was “too late”, but now we know that was a lie. The FBI was not only aware of the attacks, one of its informants, with their guidance, was encouraging the attacks for which Hammond was prosecuted. That informant’s name was Hector Xavier Monsegur aka “Sabu” and the person he was encouraging was Jeremy Hammond. The FBI informant received access to Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) from a hacker known as “Hyrriiya.” Hyrriiya wrote a letter for Hammond’s defense admitting that it was he who initially hacked Stratfor and then gave the info to Sabu. Sabu, with FBI support, brought the Stratfor info to Hammond’s attention and encouraged Hammond to hack the private intelligence firm. The crime for which Hammond is currently serving a ten year sentence.

Act To Save Internet: Which Side Are You On, Tom Wheeler?

June 5, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! FCC, Internet, Internet Freedom

Right now, the future of the Internet is at a dangerous crossroads. Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler has proposed a set of rules that will allow giant telecoms like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T create a tiered Internet. If this proposal proceeds, we could see the Internet become like cable TV in which access and quality depend on which package you purchase and how much money you can spend. It will also open the door to lawsuits that could weaken access to the Internet further. But, we also have a tremendous opportunity. Because of the quick actions taken by hundreds of thousands of people telling the FCC to save the Internet after the proposed rules were leaked, the people's choice was also put on the table.

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