FCC Pitches Free, Bowdlerized Wireless Internet Access

Aidtopia writes "FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing auctioning off an unused part of the 25 MHz spectrum on the condition that the winner provide free wireless Internet access. The proposal sets coverage targets that ramp up to 95% of the population within 10 years. The catch: the provider must filter out obscene content." I wonder what definition of "obscene" the FCC would like to use.

Comments

Obscene is easy, its called fun

[poetmatt]

Add anything that is not "politically correct", and it'll be filtered.

Thus, about 99% of all media.

Re:Obscene is easy, its called fun

[MichaelSmith]

Add anything that is not "politically correct", and it'll be filtered.

1. Encryption is mandatory over such a network

At 25 Mhz with a bandwidth of, what? 1 Mhz throughput will be 1 megabit per second shared with hundreds of users. Free wifi in the gigahertz range is already a joke. This system won't have the throughput for (decent) porn, encrypted or not.

Re:Obscene is easy, its called fun

[nbert]

The FCC are talking about providing free, nationwide wireless internet.. Damn them to hell!

Let's assume China would do the same thing - imagine the outrage. First of all it's hard for competitors to deal with a free service - there is no reason to invest in infrastructure if some part of government is providing the service free of charge. This will hurt in the long run. Secondly it's the gateway to censorship per se. The first step is to allow people to access restricted content for free, which will drive many people away from neutral ISP's. The next step is to make blacklists mandatory for all. In the end the majority will accept those measures and a few people will use proxies to circumvent it (sounds like China, doesn't it?).

Slashdot users in general, it seems, cannot distinguish between creator and creation. Bad things are created by bad producers, who will only ever produce bad things. Good things are created by good producers, who will only ever produce good things.

Huh? Maybe I'm not the average reader or I don't understand it because I am. I'm totally unfamiliar with the creator - creation and bad producers - good producers reasoning.

Re:Obscene is easy, its called fun

[Brian Gordon]

The government's not providing it, they're selling the spectrum to someone who has to offer free internet on it. Who the heck would agree to that offer? Yes I will pay you money to be forced to offer free services. What?

Fixed

[Bovius]

s/obscene/dissenting/g

Definition of "obscene"

[Teun]

I wonder what definition of "obscene" the FCC would like to use. Tell me who'll be in The White House and I'll give you an answer.

Re:Possible power grab?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was probably done at the behest of Big Networking, so that whenever people get uppity about the fact that the companies are not exactly dumping a whole lot of capital into improving and/or extending their services, they can point to this and say "just use that!", safe in the knowledge that nobody will want to use a slow, ad-filled, censored internet connection.

Re:Obscenity has a clear meaning

[DarkOx]

I know you are trying to be funny or whatever but even if you don't think the Bible contains a single fact, the fact remains it is a book of stories. More then that they are some of the oldest stories we might consider part of modern Western Civilization. They more or less lay out what society is as we understand it today. Christian or otherwise to sugest the Bible does not represent artistic, political, and scientific value(even if only the social and political science aspects are verifable) makes you appear pretty stupid.

Re:Leave it to the Republicans

[value_added]

to place restrictions on private industry

I'd agree, but to be fair, the FCC is required to mandate "decency" standards on the public airwaves, so extending that mandate/philosophy to a proposed public wireless system sounds like a reasonable argument.

The difficulty is that the internet, at least for the forseeable future, isn't at all similar to broadcast television or radio.

The Cost Of Obscentity

[DynaSoar]

"I wonder what definition of "obscene" the FCC would like to use."

Probably the one they already use to charge violators such as Howard Stern, as well as the violators' station of origin, up to US$250K per incident. I'm not sure where it is in their regs (which I do know are online) but I recall quite clearly the sign in the studio booth at WUVT that reminded me constantly of the sword hanging over me.

What's always bothered me about the regs is the relaxation of the rules after 10 PM. When I was broadcasting, I had simultaneous netcast. After 10 PM where the station is (Blacksburg VA, eastern time) is only after 7 PM on the Left Coast (ie. pacific time). After 10 PM where? Was I simultaneously legal in Virginia but breaking the law in California?

Apply that now to on-demand, statically stored material which may or may not be infringing depending on the material and time of request. It's always before 10 PM someplace, so the owner may be liable according to the location of the requester. You can bet this is the way things would fall, because the alternative is to say 'it's AFTER 10 PM someplace', making the regs moot and removing a potential source of enforcement as well as income.

Oh yeah, and the context of the offending material matters. You can play hip hop and rap on air after 10 PM local and get away with broadcasting 2 "motherfuckers" and 5 "niggers" per minute, but try to say one of either yourself and see what it costs you. In the case of the latter, that may include body parts depending on your own color. The context of your reception can also matter, hence a "researcher" is supposed to be able to access an "obscene" web site for academic purposes without fear of reprisal. Yeah, right.

Personally I prefer Larry Flint's editorialized definition of "obscene" which puts murder and such well before sex in terms of badness. If that were used, you'd never be able to access most commercial news outlets, or much common TV or theatrical material. So sad that killing is not just accepted but expected, and fucking is outlawed.

OOPS, I think I just made it impossible for you to access this in the archives should the regulation of the proposed bandwidth go through. We'll see.