Stanford Center for Internet and Society

In the first agency action to apply the principle of “network neutrality” to an Internet service provider, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) ruled on August 20, 2008, that Comcast’s action of selectively blocking peer-to-peer (“P2P”) communications occurring on its network violates the Commission’s Internet Policy Statement. This Statement articulates principles to encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet. The FCC ordered Comcast to disclose the details of its network management practices within 30 days, submit a plan to bring its practices into compliance with the Internet Policy Statement, and to cease blocking P2P communications. Comcast has appealed the FCC’s Order to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

FCC Memorandum Opinion & Order on Broadband Industry Practices

Location

I had an AHAAA moment last night reading Martha Woodmansee’s „ The Author, Art, and the Market”. She writes „As my sketch of writers’ struggles suggests, eighteenth-century Germany found itself in a transitional phase between the limited patronage of an aristocratic age and the democratic patronage of the marketplace.