Some of the biggest names in the computing industry have teamed up to form
the
Network
Neutrality Squad.
The group will set up an open forum of volunteers to monitor the activities
of telecoms companies, and name and shame those that start to block open access
to all internet sites.
Founding members include
Google web
evangelist
Vint
Cerf, security guru
Bruce
Schneier,
Qualcomm
vice president of technology Phil Karn,
Slashdot
moderator Keith Dawson and Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of
People
For Internet Responsibility.
"Recent events, such as
Comcast's
lack of candour regarding its
secretive
disruption of
BitTorrent
protocols, and
Verizon's
altering of domain name lookup results to favour its own advertising pages, are
tip-of-the-iceberg examples," said Weinstein.
"They show how easily internet operations can be altered in ways that may not
be immediately obvious, but that still can have dramatic, distorting and, in
some cases, far-reaching negative consequences for internet users.
"The project's focus includes detection, analysis and incident reporting of
any anticompetitive, discriminatory or other restrictive actions on the part of
ISPs or affiliated entities.
"These include the blocking or disruptive manipulation of applications,
protocols, transmissions or bandwidth, or other similar behaviour not
specifically requested by their customers."
The move follows decisions by the
US Department
of Justice and the
US Federal Trade
Commission that there is no need for net neutrality.
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