I’m at Berkman for the open meeting of the Internet Technical Safety Task Force, a group convened at the pressing of state attorneys general to address children’s safety on social networking sites. The day kicked off with statements from Mass and Conn. attorneys general, to be followed by presentations from technology companies offering “solutions” and suggestions.

Live tweeting and identi.ca-ing

Students for a Free Tibet posted video of a Free Tibet protest to YouTube. YouTube pulled it, in response to a copyright complaint from the International Olympic Committee. From the
copy posted to vimeo (and thence re-posted to YouTube, it appears), it’s hard to see a colorable copyright infringement claim. Sure, the image of the Olympics’ (trademarked) interlocking rings and (copyrightable) mascot showed up, but those uses would be fair and non-infringing.

We see once again that the DMCA’s unbalanced takedown scheme encourages overzealous claiming of copyright, as an easy route to removal of unflattering content. With those already inclined toward enforcement zealotry, that pushes them far overboard.

Update 8/15: It appears that YouTube reinstated the video after the IOC indicated it did not really intend to pursue a copyright claim. Still sad that this level of assurance isn’t required before claims are filed in the first place.

What could be bad about free wireless Internet access? How about censorship by federally mandated filters that make it no longer “Internet.” That’s the effect of the FCC’s proposed service rules for Advanced Wireless Service spectrum in the 2155-2180 MHz band, as set out in a July 20 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Acting on a request of M2Z Networks, which wants to provide “free, family-friendly wireless broadband,” the FCC proposes to require licensees of this spectrum band to offer free two-way wireless broadband Internet service to the public, with least 25% of their network capacity. So far so good, but on the next page, the agency guts the meaning of “broadband Internet” with a content filtering requirement. Licensees must keep their users from accessing porn:

§ 27.1193 Content Network Filtering Requirement.
(a) The licensee of the 2155-2188 MH band (AWS-3 licensee) must provide as part of its free broadband service a network-based mechanism:

(1) That filters or blocks images and text that constitute obscenity or pornography and, in context, as measured by contemporary community standards and existing law, any images or text that otherwise would be harmful to teens and adolescents. For purposes of this rule, teens and adolescents are children 5 through 17 years of age;

(2) That must be active at all times on any type of free broadband service offered to customers or consumers through an AWS-3 network. In complying with this requirement, the AWS-3 licensee must use viewpoint-neutral means in instituting the filtering mechanism and must otherwise subject its own content—including carrier-generated advertising—to the filtering mechanism.

(b) The AWS-3 licensee must:

(1) inform new customers that the filtering is in place and must otherwise provide on-screen notice to users. It may also choose additional means to keep the public informed of the filtering, such as storefront or website notices;

(2) use best efforts to employ filtering to protect children from exposure to inappropriate material as defined in paragraph (a)(1). Should any commercially-available network filters installed not be capable of reviewing certain types of communications, such as peer-to-peer file sharing, the licensee may use other means, such as limiting access to those types of communications as part of the AWS-3 free broadband service, to ensure that inappropriate content as defined in paragraph (a)(1) not be accessible as part of the service.

There are clear First Amendment problems with government-mandated filtering of lawful speech. The Supreme Court reminded us that a decade ago, striking the Communications Decency Act, the first unconstitutional effort to censor the Net. It’s still lawful for adults to view and share non-obscene pornography, and still unlawful for the government to restrict adults from doing so. But this rule digs deeper architectural problems too.

Like or hate lawful pornography, we should be disturbed by the narrow vision of “Internet” the filtering rule presupposes, because you can’t filter “Internet,” you can only filter “Internet-as-content-carriage.” This filtering requirement constrains “Internet” to a limited subset of known, filterable applications, ruining the platform’s general-purpose generativity. No Skype or Joost or Slingbox; no room for individual users to set up their own services and servers; no way for engineers and entrepreneurs to develop new, unanticipated uses.

Why? To block naked pictures among the 1s and 0s of Internet data, you need first to know that a given 11010110 is part of a picture, not a voice conversation or text document. So to have any hope of filtering effectively, you have to constrain network traffic to protocols you know, and know how to filter. Web browsing OK, peer-to-peer browsing out. You’d have to block anything you didn’t understand: new protocols, encrypted traffic, even texts in other languages. (The kids might learn French to read “L’Histoire d’O,” quelle horreur!) “Should any commercially-available network filters installed not be capable of reviewing certain types of communications, such as peer-to-peer file sharing, the licensee may use other means, such as limiting access to those types of communications as part of the AWS-3 free broadband service, to ensure that inappropriate content … not be accessible as part of the service.”

The Internet isn’t just cable television with a few more channels. It’s a platform where anyone can be a broadcaster – or a game devleoper, entrepreneur, activist, purchaser and seller, or inventor of the next killer app. Mandated filtering is the antithesis of dumb-pipe Internet, forcing design choices that limit our inventive and communicative opportunity.

Edit M2Z’s prepared text to just say no to filterband.

See also Scott Bradner, David Weinberger, Persephone Miel.

Every three years, ICANN’s bylaws call for the review of its component parts. The GNSO review produced many good recommendations for restructuring of the GNSO Council and its Policy Development Process.

The triennial wheel has turned to the At-Large Advisory Committee, and ICANN, through Westlake Consulting, is calling for input as they consider “whether the ALAC has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure; and, If so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness.”

ALAC exists “to consider and provide advice on the activities of ICANN, insofar as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users.” ALAC is supposed to be the Internet using public’s chief voice within ICANN. As ALAC’s liaison to the ICANN Board, I clearly believe that’s an important function. I also think ICANN could be doing better: I’d like to see that voice enhanced for members of the public concerned with topics such as availability of domain names in useful and non-English scripts, privacy in domain name registration, and security of Internet addresses.

If you’ve worked with ALAC or have ideas for facilitating public input to ICANN, I encourage you to get in touch with the review team. The more perspectives they hear, the better they can assess ALAC and offer recommendations.

“AT&T Inc. has joined Hollywood studios and recording companies in trying to keep pirated films, music and other content off its network — the first major carrier of Internet traffic to do so,” the LA Times reports. So customers will pay in added overhead and false positives, while filesharers adapt to evade the filtering (for both infringing and non-infringing traffic). Who wins? The sellers of filtering snake-oil tech, perhaps.