Consequences of universal interconnection – if internet is the name of a condition – we need to make some basic judgments about things and define some terms; can’t be in isolation – politics, law and technology have to be discussed in the triangle

If the net is not a space or a thing but a condition of social interconnection, the net is at least in part a physical object.

Internet – means social condition of interconnection

• if he talks of the “internet” he will say “the net”

The net – two parts – pipes and switches

• pipe – doesn’t modify the signal that it moves, simply moves it;
  • can be a copper wire, an electromagnetic frequency, a glass fiber, a string
  • if it moves a signal to from point to point without changing it, it’s a pipe
• switches – determines what signal to move; when, at what price
  • usually a general purpose digital computer
  • you can have several varieties – out of photons; currently made out of transistors
  • the proliferation of switches
  • the question is “who controls some switches?”
  • the most important switch to you is the closest to your eyeball and your eardrum; could be “yours”; my laptop, my cellphone

• but this does not define who controls it. • Macs are controlled by Steve Jobs and cellphones are controlled by the government; you are quanintly thought of as the owner but you don’t control them

Control of switches – is the politics of the network

• the rules which make it possible for one end of the pipe to communicate with the other pipe are the rules which make everything else happen;
• we think of the rules as the Internet Protocal (IP) and its shell of surrounding rules
  • without them, it would be a place without street addresses,
• every switch that exists has a little address made of four numbers, e.g. 128.59.77.251

So what makes up the net is the switches and pipes and the interconnections

Traditional copperwire telephone network – assumes that when you dial another number, e.g. 212-678-6778, whereyou are, you are where the normal telephone system calls the local loop. There is a switching station and there’s a single loop of wire between you and the switching station.

• that’s the first pipe, from your phone to a switching station;
• for the duration of your call, a virtual loop exists, a pipe solely dedicated to that conversation exists; when the call ends, the virtual loop ends, and parts are used to connect other calls
• a circuit switch network;

The internet is a packet switch network – every thing is broken down to packets – very small data – 64 or 128 bits of data – everything is broken to a cloud of shards and thrown into the net, each packet taking a completely different route to its destination.

• whatever happening between the two parties is a packet that travels from one switch to another;
• thrown in the air and reassembled in the other end;
• because packet-swtiching is chaotic, it was initially thought that it could not be used in packet switch telephone conversations

Skype – a modern voice communication system; sort of modern and sort of communication system; a packet switch network that runs over the internet

• Skype is using eBay for using it; thinks it has copyright over its technology
• All of this is simply transparent; the cutting up of a conversation into a thousand pieces then reassembling into the other side is a very transparent process;
• Router – seems like a bumblebee that you can prove why it can’t be working and not only is it working, it is robust;

Robustness of the net – comes from the number of pipes, and from the rules that don’t require movement of any way or to be processed in a certain way.

• the net behaves even under conditions of natural disaster and direct political interference;
  • it is hard to disrupt even when there is a natural disaster, since it can move over it; it can be spotty, slow, but eventually it will catch up;
  • if there is intentional disruption, the net regards censorship as a disruption and routes around it

• so if you are trying to use the net for tyranny like China, you will have a hell of a job

• this lies from the simplicity of the rules, that is simply applied.

Because there are so many complementary pipes and ways of operating, application of law or politics to it requires a unified picture which is very difficult for governments to take. The tendency is always to divide it up, to break it downt o subcomponents, it is a consequence of the architecture of ignorance

• email, FTP, websites are not media – are just different sites where packets can be moved around;
• even to the extent that you know what is in the packet, it does not matter, it is the same.

Conversation in Iceland – why it is that every voice packet leaving Iceland is charged 12 times as much as other data packets; from a technical point of view, all those data packets are equal; the ability for some packets to be charged more than other packets is the result of someone’s use of anti-competitive power.

Technology never exactly aligned with the law and policy; never be a harmony where the law the politics and technology all point in the same direction.

Work begins from suppositions, illusions of the network society that are false. – 99% of what is said about cyberlaw/ telecommunications is bullshit.

Everyone at present – is engaged in liberalizing telecommunications.

• has set the regulatory environment in the net for the world;
• uniform – you can comparatively study them in a uniform way

1996 Telecommunications Act

• process of bribery, intrigue and inaction
• like the deregulation of the financial industry which had to be done in order to help them, like the inability of commercial banks and i-banks to share ownership – the subject of the Glass-Stegal Act
  • Glass-Stegal prevented common ownership of c-banks and i-banks;
  • From 1935, there was lobbying to repeal the Glass-Stegal; Congress did not repeal this because they did not want to stop the bribery;
  • Mr. Clinton – took most bribes (telecoms liberalization), and the liberalization of the financial services, c-banks and i-banks were allowed to merge, other commercial services could merge, causing the failure

Telecommuniations

• Phone, L/D, Radio, Broadcast TV, Cable TV, Cellular Radio, Sattelite Radio, Other services
  • All of these are considered different, so regulated differently

Telephones -

• Regional Bell Operating Companies
• Telephones – local phone company but not allowed to offer long distance.
  • Must permit interconnection to offer local loop;
  • in return for which they may provide long distance provided that upon a showing that they are actually showing interconnection

Long distance

• AT&T, etc
  • May provide local services;
  • In return, they may provide other services
• But long distance calls should be free actually; since these are just data packets

Radio

• Problem is “you don’t let big people grow big enough”
• Before, no one could own more than ten broadcast licenses, no more than two in a single market, it was not monopolized; e.g. you could not make money from AM radio;
  • If you can’t make money from AM radio, why don’t just use it for public purpose?
  • A radio station that teaches English in a second language.
  • AM radio for each grade in school so everyone who wanted homework assistance could get assistance;
  • If you can’t money from AM radio, why should we?
• Law said:
  • lift all cross-ownership restrictions

• all ownership in radio is now concentrated

Broadcast television

• law said:
  • all parties holding licenses and no other parties receive free second DTV channel;

• only those people who get are those who already have • nobody who doesn’t have, gets • and this spectrum may be used for digital television while they continue braodcasting on analogue channels until the moment of DTV, at which point they must give back the analogue television channel to the public and switch to the DTV channel

• National Association of Broadcasters – DTV signal is much more like a photo displayed on a computer screen, there can be many sizes;
  • Wanted to use the signal that wasn’t being used for DTV for “other services”
• Sen Dole says DTV should be sold to TV stations; he resigned to run for the President; so this was done

Cable TV

• got the following:
  • end to price control

• FCC was given control over cable tv charges; as a sweetener, FCC was able to knock down the prices charged by electric companies for the electricity for the cable boxes; • Takings case in the SC

• • In return, it may provide “other” data services; interactive TV, picture phone, etc. – the other sweetener for cable

Cellular Radio

• Didn’t exist at that time; no rules provided in the law

Satellite Radio

• Did not exist, no rules provided in the law

Other services

• Long distance, local radio, cable, broadcast TV may offer it.

Basic idea behind the legislative program – to prevent the monopoly; convergence is going on, so allow not monopoly but something close to monopoly to consolidate; as they drift to one another to convergence, they will be required to compete against each other because it is shrinking.

• no monopoly, but a duopoly/oligopoly arose

What we got in 1996 wasn’t the blueprint of the net, but how to tighten up the net and how to compete them in the world of other services.

Professor says that this should have been done with the microwave network, this would have made things cheaper by 1/1000th of the price it takes to operate the current system; to make it a public utility;

• the more you know you know the less you think of it as a business;
• they should have nationalized the network