The Truth About Net Neutrality - DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE 12/14/2017

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CLOSER LOOK - 

This morning, the US Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to implement new Internet guidelines that classify Internet Service as an information service and add new transparency requirements.

Why does FCC Chairman Ajit Pai feel it was so important to replace the Open Internet Guidelines of 2015? 

The lazy answer would be because he's a former Verizon employee who wants to help his buddies. And this may be partly true but even so, this doesn't help them as much as you might think. Granted, they'll have freedom to try some monetization they couldn't before, but there are other limits besides the FCC on what they will do.

For one, they know that most of the public opposes blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. So anything they do will have to withstand overwhelming public backlash. 

http://www.publicconsultation.org/united-states/overwhelming-bipartisan-majority-opposes-repealing-net-neutrality/ 

And even if they can whether that backlash, which often it will be worth doing so, the other limit is the uncertainty about how long the new guidelines will stay in place. Companies won't want to invest too much in taking advantage of current regulations, only to have them switched again the next time a Democrat takes over the FCC Chair. And none of them know when that will be.

So Chairman Pai probably does want to help his old co-workers but he is also driven by ideology. He wants to remove regulations from companies no matter what the regulations are. That seems a more legitimate drive behind the current rules. Unlike previous Republican Chairs, Pai wants to pull the FCC out of the system as much as possible and shift the burden to the FTC.

This makes a little more sense to me as a motivation. If you ideologically believe in reducing government oversight, then appeals by Internet experts and the public don't matter. It's the Ron Swanson approach. 

https://static.tumblr.com/unowjew/1b8p0vnxq/comments_of_internet_engineersfcc_nn.pdf 

In fact, that move may give his opponents the basis for a court case, as the FCC has to properly justify moves like this and not addressing these credible objections could be a legal issue. But it's not a sure bet. The only sure bet is that court cases will be filed.

But let's get back to his goal. Is this the best way for Chairman Pai to reduce government regulation? Reclassifying the Internet still leaves it open to be reclassified again in the future. It doesn't solve the problem. 

If you really wanted to reduce government involvement in the Internet, I would think you would use your position to appeal to Congress to pass a new classification for the Internet, not as a telecommunications service or an information service but as an Internet service.

Now if you are one of the 75% of Republicans, 89% of Democrats and 86% of independents who don't support the current FCC changes, you may worry that putting it in Congress's hands may make it worse. And yes, Congress is often a risky proposition these days. 

But there is a start that is promising. Not perfect but promising. John Thune, Senator from South Dakota et. al drafted legislation in 2015 that “would have outlawed the online practices of blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of legal content over broadband cable and wireless connections.” Senator Thune added “corporate owners of broadband infrastructure couldn’t use their role to manipulate the internet experience.” He would still like to pursue a bipartisan bill along those lines. 

https://www.recode.net/2017/7/12/15949778/net-neutrality-day-of-action-open-internet-bipartisan-law-fcc-regulation 

Representative Mike Coffman from Colorado wanted the FCC to delay this vote and work with Congress to achieve legislation.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/even-some-republican-congresspeople-oppose-full-net-neutrality-repeal/ 

The upside of the legislative approach is that you can settle the matter so that everybody works from the same set of instructions rather than changing how the Internet is governed every 4-8 years. 

The danger is that incompetent or disingenuous politicians end up crafting a cure that's worse than the disease.

Which is another example of why its important for you to participate with your local representative and exercise your voting power at the primaries and the general election with care.

Apologies but I have to get slightly political here. It's fun to pick sides and cheer for your team. It's fun and even uplifting to hear someone say things that make you happy and send zingers at the other side that make you laugh. It's fun, but it does not promise good government.

Yes, I'm talking about the person from your party but I'm also talking about the person from the other party too. They all do it. 

But you don't have to go along with it. You can correct for your own biases and look past the fun feelings and team pride and ask hard questions about whether this person is competent and will govern with an aim to do things that make government and the country work better. 

You may be lucky enough to have voted for such a person. They exist, even now on both sides of the aisle. But make sure. Don't just assume that because they say all the right things, they're right for the job. At least if you want issues like net neutrality and others that are even more important to ever get solved. 

You don't hire a plumber because you already know how to fix the sink but want someone who validates your approach. You hire a plumber because you think they're an expert who can figure out the problem and fix it. You should vote for someone for the same reasons.

NEWS

The US FCC voted 3-2 to change the Open Internet Guidelines of 2015 to reclassify Internet Service Providers as information services as they were classified from 2005-2015. This removes the justification for prohibiting blocking, throttling and paid prioritization, shifts enforcement of consumer complaints to the FTC, and adds transparency requirements. Several organizations intend to challenge the changed rules in court. https://www.wired.com/story/after-fcc-vote-net-neutrality-fight-moves-to-courts-congress/ 

Disney announced its agreement to acquire most of 20th Century Fox including its movie studios, regional sports networks, cable channels and production arms. A new company called Fox will spin out on its own containing Fox broadcasting stations, national sports and Fox News. Disney will assume controlling ownership of Hulu with minority stakes owned by Comcast and Time Warner. Disney expects the acquisition to take 12-18 months to close. https://www.recode.net/2017/12/14/16771712/hulu-disney-acquisition-fox-means-dis-foxa-21cf 

In a blog post titled "We messed up. We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change." Patreon announced it would not change its fee structure to charge patrons instead of creators. Jack Conte wrote "We still have to fix the problems that those changes addressed, but we’re going to fix them in a different way." https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16772556/patreon-drops-service-fee-plan-apology-update 

Tweestorms AKA threads are when someone replies to their own tweets to create a string of related messages. Patrick used one as the basis for today's main topic as a matter of fact. Twitter is making such threads an official thing. As the feature slowly rolls out to Android and iOS you'll see a plus sign which lets you compose a new tweet in the same window. Once you''re done adding messages you tap "tweet all" and the thread is published all at once. People will see the first message in the thread and can tap "show this thread" to see the whole thing. https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/12/16754630/twitter-threads-tweetstorms-feature 

Apple has confirmed it acquired Shazam, the app that recognizes music and tells users the title and artist. Shazam makes most of its money on referrals to music stores. Techcrunch says Shazam reportedly discussed an acquisition with Snap and Spotify as well. Sources speaking to TechCrunch put the deal around 400MM. https://www.recode.net/2017/12/11/16762092/apple-shazam-deal-approval-regulators-music-streaming 

-- https://www.recode.net/2017/12/11/16762092/apple-shazam-deal-approval-regulators-music-streaming 

Nintendo announced Tuesday that it has sold 10 million Nintendo Switch units in less than nine months. Ars Technica points out, that's more than the Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Nintendo DS sold in those products first 10.5 months. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/12/putting-nintendo-switchs-10-million-sales-in-context/ 

Nvidia announced the Titan V video card for machine learning. The Titan V features 110 teraflops, 9 times that of the Titan X. Titan V will also get access to the Nvidia GPU Cloud containers with optimized versions of popular machine learning development frameworks. The Titan V is available today for $2,999. https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/07/nvidia-launches-new-titan-v-desktop-gpu-to-accelerate-ai-computation/ 

Synaptics announced it has entered mass production of its first optical in-display fingerprint sensor, called Clear ID. Synaptics first announced the FS9100 optical fingerprint sensor a year ago. Both Samsung and Apple are reported to have changed tactics on their latest phones because Clear ID was not ready in time. Synaptics says it is going into production with a top 5 OEM. The top 5 OEMs are Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo / Vivo, and Xiaomi https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/13/16771044/synaptics-clear-id-fs9500-indisplay-fingerprint-sensor-oled 

Apple announced its second investment from its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, committing $390 million to Finisar, which makes laser chips used in the iPhone X and airpods. Finisar will develop a 700,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sherman, Texas, for a high-tech facility developing VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips that allow depth and proximity sensing, which will help Face ID, Animoji, and ARKit.The new facility is planned to open the second half of next year. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/apple-invests-390-million-into-finisar.html?__source=twitter|tech 

Sources tell Bloomberg that YouTube plans to launch a paid music service called Remix in March. The sources say Warner Music has signed on and talks are under way with Sony, Universal and Merlin. Google introduced Google Play Music in 2011, then YouTube Music Key in 2014 which became part of YouTube Red in 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-07/youtube-is-said-to-plan-new-music-subscription-service-for-march 

Facebook's former head of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya  told the Stanford Graduate School of Business that he feels “tremendous guilt” over Facebook’s role in society. He said, “We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly where we are.” So what's the solution? Palihapitiya says he doesn't use social networks anymore and hasn't for years. Facebook responded that he has not worked there for 6 years and the company is very different than when he left. http://fortune.com/2017/12/12/chamath-palihapitiya-facebook-society/ 

Microsoft released a preview of its quantum computing development kit including the Q# language, a local quantum computing simulator, a quantum trace simulator and a Visual Studio Extension. Microsoft wants to get feedback from early adopters towards its aim of offering a full stack solution. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/11/microsoft-releases-quantum-computing-development-kit-preview/ 

Facebook's AR Studio is available to all developers now. And in a few days, Facebook is letting all developers build World Effects similar to snapchat's lenses. Right now users open the Facebook Messenger camera and can scroll through world effects, and soon there will be more to choose from. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/12/facebook-world-effects/