WEBVTT - Revisiting Net Neutrality 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.520 Get in touch technology with tech Stuff from how stuff 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:14.560 works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.400 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer for how stuff 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.680 Works dot com, and today's episode is going to be 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:26.160 about the concept of net neutrality and the battle of 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.920 the nature of the Internet itself. Now, this is a 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.960 complicated topic, particularly since the Internet is a global system 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.080 and different countries deal with this in different ways. As 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.680 per usual, I'll be focusing on the United States in 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.760 this episode as that is where I am from. It 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.760 is also the birthplace of the Internet itself. But keep 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.720 in mind that net neutrality is an issue that is 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.319 dealt with in various ways all around the world. Some 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.560 countries are a little more um a man double to 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.800 net neutrality than others. Some countries are infamously about as 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.839 far away from net neutrality as you can get, like China, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.960 for example, in the Great Firewall there. But we're gonna 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.480 focus mostly on the US. Also, I should add that 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.959 I have covered this topic a few times before. If 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.839 you'd like to listen to earlier episodes of tech Stuff 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.000 in which I go into further detail for some of 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.800 the concepts i'll talk about today, You can check out 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.319 the following shows. The first is How Net Neutrality Works, 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:37.559 which published way back in December two thousand and eight. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.360 That means that was in the first six months of 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:48.600 tech Stuff and it shows, but it also has my 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.120 former co host Chris Palette on there, and together we 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.920 try to explain what that neutrality is all about and 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.400 why it was such a contentious topic then and even 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.160 more so now, you could argue. Next, I have The 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.520 War on Net Neutrality, which published on February twelve, two 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.880 thousand fourteen, so much more recent, And then almost a 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.880 year later, on February nine, two thousand fifteen, we published 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.119 the episode what is a Common Carrier, which talked about 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:23.320 the FCCS decision to change the classification of Internet service 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.160 providers into common carriers. Uh, if you want to know 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.760 more about that, you can check out those episodes. I'll 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.280 cover some of that today because it's impossible to talk 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.880 about this topic and get you guys up to speed 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:37.799 without covering that. But if you want to look at 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.760 more specifics, check out those episodes. So, the battle of 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.560 net neutrality has been making headlines again recently, which is 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.359 the reason why I'm recording this, and I think it's 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.120 a topic that not everyone totally grasps. So today we're 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.560 going to cover the basic definitions for net neutrality. We're 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.560 gonna talk about the different entities that are in disagreement 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.160 over net neutrality and their arguments and where things seem 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.680 to be headed. And I should also point out that 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.960 I record Tech Stuff episodes about a month before they 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.840 come out, so it is entirely possible that some of 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:14.960 the stuff I covered today will already be a bit 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.480 out of date by the time the show publishes. But 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.160 you can always tune in to watch me do a 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.239 show live on twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff, except 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.040 for today when it isn't working, but most days it 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.560 is working and you can check me out. Just go 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.079 to twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff and you'll find 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.800 a schedule when I stream and record the show. All right, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.760 enough of all that, let's talk about the Internet. It's 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.160 a little box with a light on top, and it's 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.280 stored at the top of Big Ben according to the 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.040 I T crowd. All right, but before there was even 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.720 an Internet, there was the ARPA net. Now, this was 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.360 a project launched by ARPA. ARPA was the Advanced Research 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.600 Projects Agency. Today we call it DARPA. The D stands 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.760 for Defense, so now it's the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.040 DERBA is in charge of research and development for the 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.920 Department of Defense in the United States, and they look 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.000 at lots of different things that could potentially have use 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.920 in matters of defense. It doesn't necessarily have to be 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.039 the primary purpose for it, but that's always part of it. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.920 So some other big DARPA initiatives besides the ARPA NET 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:28.520 include the driverless car initiative, which is what really got 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.920 us into the early days of autonomous cars. Google's driverless 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.840 car really got its start as a project under this 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.599 uh there was a team from Stanford that competed in 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.599 a DARPA Grand Challenge, and a lot of those folks 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:45.640 went on to work for Google. But there are other 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.000 ones as well, including some interesting stuff about ways to 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.800 bio hack a brain so that you can learn better. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.320 You'll have to check out Forward Thinking to learn more 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.920 about that. But ARPA was really interested in developing technologies 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.000 that would allow computer systems to communicate with each other. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.520 This would obviously increase the value and power of computer systems. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.120 If you could have different research facilities that are across 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.560 the United States from one another sending information back and 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.080 forth via computer directly. Then that would be a very 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.800 powerful tool. And uh, ultimately you could even see other 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.720 applications such as having a decentralized network where if part 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.120 of the network were to fail for some reason, let's 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.440 say there was a massive power failure on part of 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.279 the United States, the rest of the network could continue 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.320 to function, but they needed to invent it. There wasn't 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.240 anything in place at that time that could allow it, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.599 and so to do this they had to hire a 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.240 whole bunch of really smart people to design the algorithms 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.720 and protocols that would allow for communication even between computers 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.039 that didn't use the same programming languages. So, in other words, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.760 if you had two different computers that worked on vastly 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.800 different architectures and languages, you still had to be able 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.360 to let them communicate with each other. So you had 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.479 to invent kind of a common set of rules that 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:11.360 both could follow and have meaningful communication. So these techniques 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:16.760 eventually would evolve into the foundation for the Internet itself, um, 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.120 although some of them would go through many evolutions before 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.280 they turned into the stuff that is, you know, kind 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.919 of the the software backbone for the Internet. Now, this 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.839 entire project started here in the United States, and that's 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:31.839 kind of why I mentioned the US is where the 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.159 Internet was born, because the Arpanet was sort of a 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:40.080 predecessor to the Internet UH and eventually was incorporated into 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.960 the Internet in some extent to some extent rather and 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.359 UH before it was dismantled officially, it was in the 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.080 U S where engineers built this technology that makes the 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.480 Internet possible. Though it's important to point out that other 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.080 key elements of today's Internet, such as the Worldwide Web, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.080 those originated in other countries. So it's not like the 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.520 US had a lock on all things Internet, but this 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.760 is where it got its start. Now, one thing that's 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:10.400 our relatively simple concept is just the basic idea of 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:15.600 net neutrality. The term was popularized and possibly coined by 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.600 Tim Wu who is a law professor, although originally it 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.840 was called network neutrality. He wrote a paper in two 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.520 thousand three about this idea, and he defined it in 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.800 terms of assuming a non discriminatory stance on Internet traffic 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.720 at the Internet service provider level. So that's a fancy 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.040 way of saying that Internet service providers I s p 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.640 s the companies that actually provide the access to the 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.320 Internet so that you can get on there and watch 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.880 your YouTube videos and subscribe to your podcasts, and do 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:47.520 your work and send your email and all that kind 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.720 of stuff. They wouldn't be allowed to discriminate against any 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.080 type of traffic, no matter where it was coming from, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.240 if they were part of the Internet. That's the idea 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.800 of net neutrality. Everyone plays fair. Everyone allows everyone else 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.960 to UH to send information across the networks. Otherwise than 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.000 the Internet breaks. If you don't have net neutrality, then 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.520 you have all these different UH relationships between entities that 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.640 make it difficult, if not impossible, to operate the Internet 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.400 in a reasonable fashion. So net neutrality in part is 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:29.920 kind of a necessity, at least at a certain level. Now. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.559 Lawrence Lessig, who's a Harvard law professor, said net neutrality 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.120 was all about single principle he called E two E 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.760 and that's E the numeral two and the letter E 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.720 again that stands for end to end. So in other words, 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.480 he's saying, it doesn't matter what entities you're talking about, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.760 whether it's a server and a server, whether it's an 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.080 I s P and an I s P, whether it's 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.800 a computer and a web server or a handheld device 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.040 like a smartphone and an application and server. It doesn't 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.640 matter what the entities are. It should just be neutral. 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.559 The Internet should be a dumb neutral conduit for information, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:14.280 no matter whether information starts or ends its journey. In practice, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.200 this means that you, as an Internet user, should be 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:22.480 able to access any and all information without discrimination. Now, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.839 one little complication in this is that not all information 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.439 is strictly legal, at least not in every country, or 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.920 it might be illegal to distribute the information. Maybe saying 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.040 the information is illegal itself is a little weird, but 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.920 it's illegal to distribute it uh, or, as is more 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.400 common in the United States, some uses of the Internet 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.680 are illegal because they involve other illegal activities. So using 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.200 the Internet to sell illegal goods like weapons or drugs 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.840 without the proper licensing and the proper authorization, that would 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.800 be a good example there. So those would be exceptions 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.960 to of this idea. But let's eliminate all the illegal 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.680 stuff for the time being and just talk about legal data. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.040 We're gonna make an assumption that the information we're talking 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.640 about for most of this podcast is all on the 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.000 up and up. So this isn't like stolen information. It's 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:20.000 not uh, you know, illegal for other means, it's standard 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.319 stuff and it should be treated neutral e. Net neutrality 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.640 is a state in which all of this data gets 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.199 treated the same way. None of it gets preferential treatment, 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.760 none of it gets penalized. So it shouldn't matter what 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.880 sort of device you use to access the Internet, whatever 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:36.960 it is, it should work just fine on every I 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.120 s P. That's another aspect of net neutrality. Whether it's 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.840 a laptop, a desktop, tablet, smartphone, console, or other device, 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:46.959 you should be able to connect it to the Internet, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.320 assuming of course, that the device itself isn't breaking any laws, 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:52.800 or there's not some other issue like you're trying to 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.120 overload the network or whatever. Net neutrality covers all of 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.680 those different aspects. You should be able to act, says, 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:05.439 any information originating from any web server, on any device, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.880 on any network. Now, the history of net neutrality has 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.280 been a really bumpy one. Back in two thousand seven, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:16.880 the Associated Press published accusations that Comcast, a major Internet 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.920 service provider here in the United States, have been blocking 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:24.840 some customers from using BitTorrent software to download videos, and 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.280 that Comcast really wanted to stifle anything that competed with 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:33.320 its own video on demand service. So using BitTorrent by 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.559 itself is not illegal. You could use BitTorrent to download 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.800 perfectly legal content. Let's say that someone has produced a 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:46.240 video that isn't isn't violating copyright law. It's their own 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.480 original work and they've decided they wanted to distribute it 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.160 via BitTorrent. BitTorrent is just ap peer to peer sharing service. 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.600 It has nothing to do with the actual content, sort 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.000 of like the Internet itself. You wouldn't say the Internet 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.679 is all about ending illegal stuff from one place to another, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.959 even though a lot of people use the Internet to 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.439 do that. That's not what the Internet actually is. The 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.360 same is true for bit Torrent. BitTorrent is a method 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:16.360 of sending information using peer to peer networks. It doesn't 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.960 necessarily mean that you're using it to steal stuff. Well, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:25.760 Comcast was being accused of throttling the data transfers of 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:31.160 people using BitTorrent software. Essentially, the accusation said, Comcast detected 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:36.720 these customers, Comcast customers, we're using bit torrent software. They 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.679 were connecting with other bit torrent users, and so they 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.120 would find their connections slowed down dramatically whenever they were 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:47.600 using BitTorrent, And meanwhile Comcast was pushing its own video 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.280 on demand service saying, hey, you should just buy the 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:54.559 videos straight from US. Public interest groups would eventually get 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.719 in touch with the f c C here in the 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:02.880 United States, the FCC kind of sort of oversaw I 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.199 s p S. And I say kind of sort of 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:09.840 because at the time there wasn't a real strong argument 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.800 to be made that the FCC had that sort of domain. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:18.240 It was sort of in their domain, but there were 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:23.760 no formal laws or regulations that put the FCC in charge. Now, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.559 the FCC argued that Comcast, which was supposed to act 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.040 as a neutral carrier of information, was using anti competitive 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.079 practices to suppress a competing service. And so there was 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.760 a vote and the f c C passed a three 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.800 to two vote against Comcasts. So f CC's board, as 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.160 you know, five members, and what they would vote on 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:48.560 these issues about whether or not a company had violated 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.640 some rule or regulation and then determine what what steps 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.160 should be taken in response to that. In this case, 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:59.079 it was a close vote three to two. Two Democrats 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.040 and a Republican voted against Comcast. It was actually a 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.480 majority Republican board at that time. So the f c 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.120 C said to Comcast, hey stop it, use guys, but 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:15.079 they didn't find Comcasts. They just demanded that Comcast halt 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:20.240 this behavior, that they stopped throttling customers. Comcasts response was 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.320 you aren't the boss of me, and I'm gonna sue you. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.200 And that's exactly what happened. So this lawsuit last several 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:33.000 years and in two a federal court dismissed the fccs 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.080 earlier ruling. Now why did they do that, Well, the 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.640 FCC was claiming that under Title one of a Communications 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.720 Act they would be able to do this, but it 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:48.600 really was a pretty loose interpretation of the law, and 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.000 the federal court said the FCC just did not have 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.080 the authority to slap Comcasts risks in the first place. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.280 So even though Comcast wasn't fined, the essentially what the 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:03.000 federal court was say was, you can't even reprimand Comcast, 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.680 you don't have that authority. You're not you're not in 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:10.040 charge of this. Uh. It would be like someone you 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.160 know telling you that you need to pull over for speeding, 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.040 but they're not a police officer. It would be weird. 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.280 It's not really their job. Well, later that year, the 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.520 f c C passed some official regulations on net neutrality. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.080 So essentially, what the FCC was trying to do was say, hey, 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.200 we totally have the authority to do this. They were 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.400 attempting to codify rules they had set up for real zes. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.120 But then Verizon sued the f c C and said, 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.480 you can't do that. You don't have the authority to 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.840 set these regulations, and you're passing rules that you don't 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.280 get to pass, so stop it now. The Federal Court 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.080 agreed once again with the industry and said the FCC 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.400 does not have that authority now. Eventually, this led to 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.720 a lot of pressure on the FCC to create real 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.240 rules for net neutrality deep and there was talk for 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.000 a while of something that was more of a conciliatory approach, 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.680 but the Obama administration in two thousand and fourteen put 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.440 a lot of pressure on the FCC to draw up 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.960 more stringent rules about net neutrality, and so that eventually 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:19.560 led to the Open Internet Order of I'm gonna talk 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.080 more about that later in this episode and give you 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 more details about what that Open Internet Order really was 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.200 all about. But The important thing to remember right now 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:33.400 is that the industry responded by challenging this order and 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.080 trying to take it to courts, but so far the 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:42.120 courts have upheld the FCCS ruling. They said that everything 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.920 is technically legal here with a recent court decision declining 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:50.800 to re hear the arguments. So essentially, the industry appealed 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.840 this decision. The higher court said, no, we're not gonna 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.480 bother listening to this because we agree with the lower court, 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.320 or rather, we don't see an to re hear this case. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.159 And a lot of big is s p s got 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.280 a little mad about this, and there's now a move 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.440 to move this case all the way up to the 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.399 Supreme Court. Now, in addition, with a change of administrations 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.000 in the United States government, you may have heard something 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.640 about that over the last year or so, we're looking 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.919 at yet another revision of the rules. But I'm going 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:23.879 to get into all of that a bit later in 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.400 this podcast. Now, the reason all of this is important 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.360 is because the Internet is a network of networks. That's 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.240 how it started and that's what it is now. Although 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.879 the details have changed significantly. The network of networks doesn't 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.119 work exactly the same way it did when the Internet 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.440 was a brand new, little baby. You could make a 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.480 persuasive argument that the old definition of net neutrality isn't 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.160 really an accurate argument to make these days. And that's 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:55.040 because many entities like Google or Amazon or Netflix have 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.800 their systems embedded into the infrastructure on the Internet in 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.920 ways that weren't the case in the early days. So 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.200 this gets back to Internet service providers. These networks that 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.480 allow the connections of customers, whether those customers are people 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.080 like you and me, if their businesses, if there are 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.119 other I s p s that are lowered down on 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.440 the chain, they there. These are the companies that allow 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.119 the inner connections on the Internet. So let's take a 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:23.960 look at how things used to be and compared to 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.520 how things are now to kind of understand why the 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.560 argument of net neutrality is changing a little bit. First 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:32.680 of all, no one owns the Internet as a whole, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.000 because the Internet is a bunch of different components owned 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.800 by a bunch of different companies. So it's it's not 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.639 like a car where you could have one person be 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:45.920 the owner, or even one person to be the manufacturer. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:51.800 It's a it's a huge complicated machine and different intoities 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:56.119 own different parts of this machine. No one has the 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.920 say of how it should be run. Like there's no 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.600 one who has controlling interest in the Internet, but the 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.920 actual infrastructure is owned by a bunch of different companies 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.760 and other entities. Internet service providers run the networks that 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.800 allow customers to connect transmit received data over the Internet. 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.159 So if each I s P was totally independent, as 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.920 in it was its own network and it did not 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.520 have any connectivity to other networks, so this is not 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.720 an Internet, this is just a a single network, well, 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.639 you would only be able to access the stuff that 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:36.120 was connected through that specific I s P. So let's 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.920 say you are a customer of I s P A, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.280 but Netflix was only on I s P B. Well, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.360 that would mean you wouldn't be able to watch Netflix. Fortunately, 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.320 the Internet is the network of all these networks together, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.240 and so they connect to each other through network access 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.080 points or n A P S naps. Man and NAP 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.879 sounds good right about now? Well, naps are exchanges that 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.000 allow traffic to switch from one network to another in 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.840 its journey from origin to destination. So using the Internet, 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.480 you could watch Netflix even if you're on I s 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.200 P A. Netflix is on I s p B. When 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.600 you send that request, it goes through one of these 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.240 network access points, switches over from one network to another, 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.480 gets the go ahead from the server on I s 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.360 p B. The information is sent back more or less 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.600 in a reverse path from the one that your request took. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.639 Keeping in mind that the way the Internet works, the 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.160 information branches out in all sorts of different ways. It's 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.920 not like it's a single pathway from point A to 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.040 point B and you would still be able to watch it. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.320 That's in the old days. Uh. These naps are exchanges 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.639 that allow all that journey to happen, you know, for 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.400 the data to switch from one network to another. Routers 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.960 are the devices that take care of traffic control, sending 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.639 data where it's need and not sending it where it 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.440 is not needed. That's equally important because you don't want 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.479 to have superfluous data running around the Internet gumming things up. 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.479 There is a limited carrying capacity to the Internet. Uh, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.840 it's huge, but you know, if you were to send 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.240 an enormous amount of data to a very specific section 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.920 of the Internet at a specific time, you could overload things. 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.760 You can make stuff slow down, you can make systems crash, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.040 so rollers are very important to make sure that that 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.840 data is going where it needs to go and only 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.159 where it needs to go. In the early days the Internet, 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.040 there were hundreds of companies that were interconnected to create 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:46.760 this network, and the distribution of traffic was pretty you know, decent, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.560 it's pretty even. There weren't a few, just a few 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:56.719 entities dominating traffic across the Internet. It was distributed fairly evenly, 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.280 and that neutrality was real concerned because if someone didn't 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.200 play ball, it kind of ruined it for everyone else. Well, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.600 I got more to say about the basics of the 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:10.639 Internet and how net neutrality plays into it, but before 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.200 I jump into more of that, let's take a quick 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:24.040 break to thank our sponsor. Okay, Now, for the Internet 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:28.879 to work, these various Internet service providers have to agree 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.480 to carry each other's traffic, and typically we call this 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.760 process peering, where companies will peer with one another, whether 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:38.480 it's two I s p s or an I s 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.879 P and an edge provider. Edge providers being like the 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.159 content providers that are creating the stuff that people are 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.840 actually trying to access. So the I s P s 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:49.040 you can think of that as like almost like a 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.080 highway system and the the edge providers being like all 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:54.000 the stuff along the highways that you want to go to, 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.720 and peering involves drawing up an agreement where the various 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.120 decent question will allow for the transfer of data coming 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.600 from one source to pass over to the other source, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:11.600 for one network to pass over into the other network. Basically, 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.880 if you were a smaller Internet service provider, you would 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:17.440 have to pay a certain amount per chunk of data 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.399 up to larger Internet service providers that are further upstream 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:25.120 of you. If a smaller I s P gets big enough, 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.879 if it grows over time, it could end up creating 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.200 that same arrangement with smaller I s p s that 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:33.520 are downstream of it, and it could arrange for a 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:36.680 more favorable rate with the larger upstream I s p s. 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:38.679 If it got big enough, it could have the leverage 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:41.159 to say, hey, let's rework this deal, or even if 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:45.160 they got big enough, arrange for free transfers of data 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:47.320 if the size and traffic between the two I s 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:50.920 p s is similar enough. Alright, so let's say that 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:54.040 you are the head of a big old Internet corporation 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:57.119 and your company has assets and several different parts of 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:00.080 the Internet so your computers and connections make up to 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.399