North American Network Operators Group

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Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill]

  • From: Sean Donelan
  • Date: Sun Nov 13 17:39:49 2005

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Leo Bicknell wrote:
> "access the Internet", could it be more clear?

No, because there is no legal defintion of "the Internet."

During the early days of the privitization of the Internet, you could not
access www.pizzahut.com (on UUNET) from various universities (on NSFNET)
because the universities wouldn't pay ANS for "CO+RE access" and the NSF
wouldn't let UUNET send commercial traffic over the NSFNET.  Were ANS and
UUNET providing Internet access even though there were sites that couldn't
exchange traffic between them?  Which one had more claim to the term
"Internet?" ANS because it supplied access to universities or UUNET
because it supplied access to other commercial networks?


> > Have you tried to buy an HDTV recently?
> >
> > Would that really be an improvement?
>
> I think HDTV hardware is quite clear.  I love my HDTV.  But once
> again, it's the service providers who are the problem.  My provider
> (who I will let be nameless for now) doesn't keep any cable cards
> locally, and has to send off to the national HDTV center to get
> one.  They lock down their set top box to a single resolution, which
> is not the resolution of my TV, nor the resolution of the local
> broadcasters.  They don't carry anything but the three local networks
> in HD.  They are also losing my business as we type to another
> provider who offers a better service.

Gee, it appears the marketplace is working. Why aren't you hiring lawyers
to sue the service provider if they aren't giving you what you think
you should get with HDTV?  Instead you are using your wallet to choose.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0156005972/104-3889928-7799121?v=glance

Is your hardware HDTV, Full HDTV, Native HDTV, HDTV-Ready, Integrated
HDTV, HDTV Monitor?  The Consumer Electronics Association and FCC has
been in full swing trying to keep up with the various names being used.
Almost none of the consumer HDTV hardware sold in the USA today can
actually do everything possible with HDTV, it does just a subset.

Is there going to be a similar association or government agency involved
in trying to keep up with all the different ways to describe what the
"Internet" is or isn't.  Are you going to like the definition they
come up with?  Are they going to define various subsets of the Internet,
because the reality is in the terms and conditions of almost every ISP
they say they aren't responsible for anything beyond their network.