By Tom Foremski for Silicon Valley Watcher
Is this what the loss of net neutrality will bring?
A Silicon Valley Watcher reader left this tip:
I use Cox cable internet, Cox's media empire printed classifieds is
one of their big revenue drivers. Guess what? If you try to access
Craigslist over Cox Cable internet... its nearly impossible! It
appears that they throttle access to craigslist - as a matter of
fact there have been a zillion complaints but hey, who can blame
Cox? They're trying to stop the opening cap in their money dam!
Maybe you should investigate this tip further. Cheers
I did investigate further, I walked out of my apartment and across
Alamo Square and popped in on Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craigslist.
Jim was just getting back from work and I spoke with Susan Best,
publicist for Craigslist. Susan said they have known about the problem
with Cox.
Jim soon arrived and said the problem of access had been going on
since late February. It had something to do with the security software
that Cox isusing from a company called Authentium.
Cox has been collaborating with Authentium since April 2005 to develop
the security software suite.
Back on February 23rd Authentium acknowledged that their software is
blocking Craigslist but it still hasn't fixed the problem, more than
three months later. That's a heck of long time to delete some text
from their blacklist. And this company also supplies security software
to other large ISPs.
Craigslist has approached Authentium several times to get it to stop
blocking access by Cox internet users but it has been unresponsive.
Jim wasn't aware that Cox had its own classified ads service. "That
changes things, " he said.
This situation does not look good in the context of the net neutrality
debate. This is exactly the kind of scenario that many people are
concerned about, that the cable companies and the telcos will make it
difficult for their internet users to access competing services.
Here are Craigslists' system reports: If you scroll down you can see
the Cox problem, and there are quite a few problems with others too:
email with SBC, and also with Yahoo and BT Internet. Are those
problems also related to the telcos using software that discriminates
against Craigslist?
Some more related links:
From Newspapers and Technology: Cox papers adding interactive features
to classifieds Sept 2005
Take a look at this story about Cox refusing to run AP video. Is it
fighting for open standards are is it fighting off a competitor with a
poor revenue split?
From Mark Glaser's MediaShift: Cox Newspapers Says No to AP Video
Are the telcos funding an online campaign against net neutrality? Take
a look at this recent post from Mark Glaser's MediaShift: Bloggers
Must Be Vigilant Against Astroturf Comments
Here is the Cox Communications site, it's called Safe is Beautiful(!)
Here is a video sent to me by writer/director Stefano Boscutti:
SAVE THE INTERNET
June 06, 2006 | permanent link | 3 comments | tag: Future Watch
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