[p2p-research] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] Letter - New improved revision

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paolo Brini <paolo.brini at iridiumpg.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] Letter - New improved revision
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net


 OPEN LETTER TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT


 Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We wish to express our deepest concerns about the future of the Internet in
Europe with regard to the latest amendments to the Telecoms Package, which
is at this time in the final phase of its Second Reading stage.

Several harmful amendments to the Telecoms Package have been adopted on
March 31st, in the IMCO Committee of the European Parliament. Most of these
amendments weaken or render void any protection to consumers, allow
practices which are detrimental to the fundamental rights of the citizens,
and give wide and discretionary powers to telecommunication companies.

Amendments pertaining to traffic network discrimination allow Internet
providers to filter contents and applications, and to give priority to
certain services whilst blocking others. The consequences will be
catastrophic for citizens' freedom and for Internet based innovation. Any
business operator on the Internet will have no longer the certainty of
reaching all of the web surfers of Europe. Conversely, every Internet user
will see only the portion of the Web which the provider will give access to.

Open and non-discriminatory access, which has always been the basis for the
growth of the Internet, is threatened by American telecommunications
companies AT&T and Verizon, which have pushed a series of amendments. These
amendments will create a permanent state of bandwidth scarcity and allow to
prioritize some contents, applications and services over others. They will
also discourage investments in network infrastructure, preventing
competition and innovation and will seriously threaten fundamental freedom
of speech. What's more, as EU Observer stated (
http://euobserver.com/19/27859):

"US President Barack Obama made net neutrality a key issue while on the
campaign trail, and at the beginning of March appointed Julius Genachowski,
a strong backer of net neutrality, as the country's top telecommunications
regulator. The big US telcos see the writing on the wall, and so the
battlefield has shifted across the Atlantic."

*Furthermore, these facts suggest that the AT&T amendments have been pushed
in order to slow innovation in Europe, and put it at a disadvantage to the
USA. The European internal market, which is based significantly on the
Internet, will no longer have the benefits of an open and non discriminatory
Internet. Yet, those very benefits will still be available to all other
countries outside the EU.

*In the time of a serious economic crisis, the risk is that the gap between
Europe and USA will be artificially created, slowing down the core of the
electronic telecommunication infrastructure.

It is our understanding that the European Parliament has not been correctly
informed, if even perhaps misinformed, about the aforementioned risks which
have emerged more clearly after the stage of first reading.

*Already, on the 3rd of April the biggest German mobile telecommunication
company announced they are blocking Skype even though Skype is both a key
application for voice communication on the Internet and well-known to
consume a very tiny amount of bandwidth. Therefore the decision was not
based on any real need of traffic management or Quality of Service and shows
that traffic management policies and Quality of Service may be used as an
excuse to block specific applications. It also demonstrates that purely
depending on competition among telecommunication companies is insufficient
to keep the Net open, and emphasizes the necessity that the Universal
service guarantees to citizens, business companies** and Internet operators
unlimited access to services, applications and protocols on the Internet.

*Thus, we implore you to consider the matter carefully, since the whole
future of the Internet in Europe, and therefore one key element of future
European social and economical prosperity, is at stake now.

We cordially invite you to examine the following independent analysis
related to the amended articles of Universal Service Directive, Framework
Directive and Authorisation Directive, by Monica Horten, PhD researcher in
European Communication Policy at University of Westminster, Communication
and Media Research Institute.

http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=9
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=304&Itemid=9

We hope that you will defend citizens' fundamental rights and the future
economic prosperity of the European market project which is based around
fundamental Internet freedoms

Within our coalition we have experts in areas relevant to the Internet and
citizens' rights including filtering, network technologies, digital rights
management, privacy and data protection, policy, law, media and software.

The undersigned groups and individuals represent hundred of thousands
European citizens and Internet users, in xx EU Member States.

The undersigned,



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