News

Independent ISPs Fight for Survival

Internet service providers are under attack — not by malicious hackers but, they say, by the U.S government and big business.

By Michelle Delio

The Federal Communications Commission and Congress have proposed new rules that could put almost every ISP out of business in the next year, according to
Bruce Kushnick, chairman of TeleTruth, an ISP advocacy organization.

If they don’t fight for their right to exist, independent ISPs soon will be replaced by huge cable television and telephone companies supported by misguided FCC
regulations, according to Kushnick, who addressed an audience Friday at ISPCON, an annual gathering for Internet service providers.

Extinction is not the only trouble bedeviling ISPs. Owners and workers say they are being forced to turn into Net nannies, cops and snoops by the cavalcade of
anti-terrorist and copyright-protection legislation that’s been passed in the last two years.

Kushnick’s speech was greeted with much somber head-nodding and occasional bursts of approving applause from an audience consisting mostly of ISP owners
and employees.

"ISPs could soon become a distant memory," Kushnick warned. "It is now time for you to make sure that these regulators and the public know the contribution
ISPs have made in bringing the Internet and World Wide Web to the American public so that you can continue to deliver the services and expertise that the
monopolies, who want to take over your business, do not offer and have never delivered."

The mood at ISPCON darkened late Thursday as news spread that Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had struck down a
constitutional challenge by ISP Verizon Communications and ruled that the Recording Industry Association of America can subpoena ISPs for information on their
file-swapping customers.

Earlier in the day, Chris Hoofnagle from the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., had warned attendees that "if the Verizon case goes the
wrong way, ISPs should expect to receive unlimited requests for information on their clients."

Over the past year, ISPs have been pummeled with demands from the RIAA and big media companies insisting that service be cut to customers who are engaging
in peer-to-peer file swapping of media protected by copyrights, Hoofnagle said, during a panel discussion on "New And Electrifying Legal Developments for the
Service Provider."

During the discussion, half a dozen owners and employees of ISPs said that in more than a few cases the copyright owners had accused seemingly innocent clients
of large-scale file swapping.

In one case, a 72-year-old female client of Wisconsin ISP Power Web Connect had been accused of piracy by Warner Bros., whose attorneys claimed the
woman was making copies of Warner Bros. movies available to file-trading services.

"Believe me, this woman didn’t know anything about P2P and I’d bet she wouldn’t know how to use a file-sharing network even if she wanted to," said a Power
Web worker. "Yet we still get letters from Warner Bros. attorneys demanding we throw her off the network."

Felonious file swapping isn’t the only P2P problem plaguing ISPs. When their bandwidth isn’t being clobbered by spam, it’s being gobbled up by greedy file traders.

On display at ISPCON are products that allow ISPs to manage the bandwidth monopolized by traders. Ellacoya Networks’ IP service control system lets
providers classify the types of traffic moving through their networks, and provides tools that determine how bandwidth is dealt out to individual users.

"Most broadband ISPs get loads of customer complaint calls about slow service during peak usage times," said Matt Burke of Ellacoya. "ISPs can use Ellacoya to
identify the few hogs on their system and then deal with the problem however they feel is appropriate.

"Most opt to give known high-use P2P traders less bandwidth during peak times so the majority can get better service; then they usually give that bandwidth back
during nonpeak," Burke said.

He said the product is "selling like gangbusters."

ISP owners also were educated on ways of working with the government and given tips on dealing with new regulations that require them to act in ways they feel
could compromise their customers’ privacy.

Joseph Price, an attorney with Kelley Drye & Warren, advised conference attendees to comply with the letter of the law, but not to get flustered when they receive
the inevitable demands to produce customer information regarding copyright violation issues.

"Educate yourself; network with others in the business," Price said. "Know exactly what you need to do to comply with legislation, and what you don’t."

One piece of legislation that continues to confuse ISPs is the Patriot Act, passed by Congress on Oct. 24, 2001. The act spells out ways the U.S. government can
monitor communications in order to stop terrorism.

"I’ve had two years to read through the 1,016 sections in Patriot and so far I’ve gotten through and understood maybe a couple of dozen pages," confessed "Joe,"
the owner of a small ISP with 3,700 users. He asked that his last name be withheld.

"But as I’ve been told this week, any employee of the federal executive branch can contact me and force me to provide access to the electronic communications of
any of my customers who may have information relevant to any federal case," Joe said. "And anyone who owns a copyright on anything can also demand info about
my users.

"So I’ve essentially been turned into a rat spy. It used to be fun to run an ISP. Now it’s all regulations, legal issues and new hidden hassles. Just like the Internet
itself, I guess."

http://wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58628,00.html

Posted in:

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.