[P2P-F] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] Net Neutrality: EU Parliament Must Amend Kroes' Dangerous Proposal

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] Net Neutrality: EU Parliament Must Amend Kroes'
Dangerous Proposal
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net


Themes: NET NEUTRALITY, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, PILAR DEL CASTILLO VERA,
NEELIE KROES

La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release

Permanent link:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-eu-parliament-must-amend-kroes-dangerous-proposal


Net Neutrality: EU Parliament Must Amend Kroes' Dangerous Proposal



*** Paris, 5 December 2013 – On Monday 9th December, the rapporteur Pilar
del Castillo Vera (EPP - Spain) will present to the “Industry” (ITRE)
Committee of the European Parliament her draft report [1] on Neelie Kroes'
proposal [2] for a Regulation on the Telecom Package. Citizens must urge
[3] MEPs to amend this report in order to accurately define what qualifies
as 'specialised services' with 'enhanced' quality of service, and ensure
that the Regulation will guarantee a genuine and unconditional Net
neutrality principle. ***

The proposal for a Regulation on the Telecom Package, issued by Neelie
Kroes on September 11th despite vivid criticisms from both outside [4] and
inside the Commission [5], pretends to defend the Net neutrality principle
by stating in its article 23.5 that “providers of Internet access services
shall not restrict the freedoms [of communication] by blocking, slowing
down, degrading or discriminating against specific content, applications or
services” [6].

Ironically, the proposal actually breaches this principle right before
introducing it, allowing in its article 23.2 the provision of “specialised
service [...] with an enhanced quality of service" – that is to say
services offering prioritization. Although it might be acceptable to
prioritize services on private networks as long as they do not unfairly
compete with existing Internet services [7], the proposal goes further and
reuses this concept to extend it to the Internet as a whole. The Commission
thereby aims to give control over such form of discrimination to Internet
access providers and big content providers, allowing them to “enter into
agreements with each other to transmit the related data volumes [...] with
a defined quality of service or dedicated capacity” [8]. Here,
prioritization on the Internet would affect billions of communications,
people and companies, and would only relies on commercial agreements
between dominant actors of the digital economy.
In the meantime, smaller new entrants and innovative players would not be
able to enter into the same deals and would de facto be deprioritized.
Freedom of communication on the Internet's end-to-end architecture would
also be severely undermined.

The draft report which will be presented on Monday, December 9th by Pilar
del Castillo Vera (EPP - Spain) – rapporteur in ITRE, the Committee
responsible – will propose the very same provisions, specifying even more
clearly that “ the general quality of Internet access” may de facto
lawfully be impaired on the basis of “the technology deployed, in order to
ensure the delivery of the enhanced quality service” [9].

Citizens must urge MEPs to amend the draft regulation, in particular to
better specify the nature and the characteristics of specialised services:

    - clarifying that a specialised service shall run within closed
communications networks, e.g. separately from the Internet access service
(according to the definition provided by telecom regulatory authorities);
    - and guaranteeing that any service functionally identical to services
available over the public Internet cannot qualify for enhanced quality of
service (so as to ensure the principle of Net neutrality is not bypassed
through the development of specialized services).

MEPs must also better define Net neutrality (article 23.1) to cover the
freedom to connect any hardware to the network (in particular servers so as
to promote self-hosting which can play a key role in empowering citizens in
relation to their Internet communications), and also set out effective
enforcement procedures and sanctions against those who violate the crucial
principle of Net neutrality.

“Neelie Kroes and the text's rapporteur at the EU Parliament are trying to
legitimate prioritizations in favor of dominant Internet companies through
an outrageous reversal of the concept of 'specialised services'.
Discrimination of Internet services would severely undermine the
decentralized architecture that has made the Internet work so well for the
past decades. We cannot let telecom operators decide what information we
can access and how we can access it without renouncing to the Internet's
empowerment and potential for creativity and innovation. Citizens must
contact their MEPs and urge them to properly define 'specialised services'
so as to ensure that they take place on closed networks and do not unfairly
compete with existing Internet services” concluded Félix Tréguer, cofounder
of the association La Quadrature du Net.





* References *

1.
https://laquadrature.net/files/Net%20Neutrality%20-%20Draft%20Report%20ITRE%20-%20%20Del%20Castillo%20Vera.pdf

2. https://www.laquadrature.net/files/Proposal-Kroes-201309_EN.pdf

3. https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/How_to_contact_a_MEP

4. As an example, the European Data Protection Supervisor stated in a press
release published on November 15th that the Neelie Kroes' proposal devoids
“of substance" the Net neutrality principle "because of the almost
unlimited right of providers to manage Internet traffic”. Citizen
organisations also widely criticized the proposal.

5. A leaked criticism of a draft by EU Commissioner Viviane Redding's
services says for example “such limited possibilities of accessing Internet
content and services of their choice would run counter to the stated
objectives of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights”:
http://www.edri.org/NN-negativeopinions

6. Proposal for a Regulation on the single market for electronic
communications, Article 23.5: “Within the limits of any contractually
agreed data volumes or speeds for Internet access services, providers of
Internet access services shall not restrict the freedoms provided for in
paragraph 1 by blocking, slowing down, degrading or discriminating against
specific content, applications or services, or specific classes thereof,
except in cases where it is necessary to apply reasonable traffic
management measures. Reasonable traffic management measures shall be
transparent, non-discriminatory, proportionate and necessary to:
a) implement a legislative provision or a court order, or prevent or impede
serious crimes;
b) preserve the integrity and security of the network, services provided
via this network, and the end-users' terminals;
c) prevent the transmission of unsolicited communications to end-users who
have given their prior consent to such restrictive measures;
d) minimise the effects of temporary or exceptional network congestion
provided that equivalent types of traffic are treated equally.”

7. As for the priorization of existing Internet services, La Quadrature du
Net takes the view that after the adoption of the Regulation, a reflection
should be launched to consider the possibility of allowing priorization of
Internet communications, as long as three main conditions are met:
    - that such Quality of Service be application-agnostic (applied
indiscriminately to different online services or applications);
    - that such Quality of Service be under the full control of the user so
as to preserve the key architectural features of the Internet;
    - that the best-effort Internet be protected from degradation caused by
the development of guaranteed QoS, for instance by ensuring a “sufficient
quality of service” for the best-effort traffic delivery model (a notion
already in use in some EU countries).

8. Proposal for a Regulation on the single market for electronic
communications, Article 25.2:
“2. End-users shall also be free to agree with either providers of
electronic communications to the public or with providers of content,
applications and services on the provision of specialised services with an
enhanced quality of service.
In order to enable the provision of specialised services to end-users,
providers of content, applications and services and providers of electronic
communications to the public shall be free to enter into agreements with
each other to transmit the related data volumes or traffic as specialised
services with a defined quality of service or dedicated capacity. The
provision of specialised services shall not impair in a recurring or
continuous manner the general quality of Internet access services.”

9. Pilar del Castillo draft report on the proposal, amendment 103:
“End-users shall also be free to agree with either providers of electronic
communications to the public or with providers of content, applications and
services on the provision of specialised services with an enhanced quality
of service. **Where such agreements are concluded with the provider of
Internet access, that provider shall ensure that the enhanced quality
service does not impair the general quality of Internet access, except as
may be necessary taking into account the state of the art and technology
deployed, in order to ensure the delivery of the enhanced quality service
**.” (added text is indicated with **)







** About La Quadrature du Net **


La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net


** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room



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