[Chapter-delegates] Netherlands is First Country in Europe with Net Neutrality

Sun May 13 20:44:56 PDT 2012

Dear Alejnadro,
Thank you very much for such important insights and recommendations. We took
the word from ISOC Bolivia, given that we are in the organization of our
agenda of priorities, and posts like yours serve us much to our planning.
regards

J. Eduardo Rojas

Miembro del Directorio - ISOC Bolivia

Calle Víctor Sanjinés Nº 2895 Piso 1 Of. 3

Facebook: eduardosocio

Twitter: eduardosocio

La Paz, Bolivia

De: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] En nombre de Dr.
Alejandro Pisanty Baruch
Enviado el: domingo, 13 de mayo de 2012 21:48
Para: Eduardo Diaz; Rudi Vansnick
CC: Chapter Delegates; Chapters European
Asunto: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Netherlands is First Country in Europe with
Net Neutrality

Hi all, 

we have been involved in the Network Neutrality legislation effort in Mexico
and what we've learned is a good lesson. 

ISOC Mexico has been rather cautious in this matter as we know even the name
"network neutrality" is problematic, as has been well explained by ISOC and
many of us over the years. We are wary of legislation since it can have lots
of unintended and unforeseeable consequences, and, worse, the political
process of legislating may hide great risks - and we did find out those!

A few months ago, the Science and Technology Commission of the Senate, with
whose Chair we have a good dialog as he understands Internet issues well (he
is a former President of a University and a graduate in Economics), put
forward a draft Network Neutrality law, largely inspired in the one in Chile
and also possibly a result of extensive discussions with the representatives
of Google in Mexico. This initiative was not accepted in the joint Senate
Commissions charged with studying it before it went to the Plenum.

The next step the Senate took was to call for a public consultation on the
issue. About half the experts in the consultation, which took place a few
weeks ago, were members of ISOC, with a variety of views. In general the
principle of Network Neutrality, in some version, was reaffirmed, though
with a clear opposition of some of the telcos and ISPs also present in the
consultation. The Senate group which convened the consultation agreed to
call on a small group of experts and draft an alternative law.

What they came up was very bad. Essentially it was a law that would allow
any violations to Network Neutrality as long as the providers inform their
clients of them. This was drafted by a well-known consultant who, in a
Twitter discussion, said he was using one of the arguments I had presented
in the consultation, viz. a market approach. What I said was a bit broader,
saying that countries like the UK (through OFCOM) are letting the market
decide but watching carefully for violations and ready to regulate.

So immediately we went into opposition, especially when we realized that the
initiative was going to be passed by fast track without any votes! It took
us a weekend of intense Twitter campaign - based on my blog for explanations
- to make the Senators backing the initiative to announce they woul withdraw
it.

So my word of caution - don't play with fire. Go to the legislative only if
you can prove that you have the right backers and allies, that you have
assessed well the adversary's power and their silent lobbying, and with a
backup/exit plan. As much as we are happy with good results, like the law in
the Netherlands which Rudi has brought to our attention, we will be
suffering great damage globally with each bad law that is enacted and can be
quoted as a precedent.

I think that we should also be careful about the use of ISOC's name and
corporate image as we enter these battles. Are we strong enough? are we
perceived as an independent, nationally loyal entity? or can some local
actors weaken our case by calling us "lackeys of imperialism", "agents of
American interest", etc.? Do we appear aligned with a political party when
we enter this fight in each specific country? There's a lot of evaluation to
be done. In our case, we let it be known that we are in ISOC, I am known as
the ISOC Mexico Chair and others for their service to ISOC, we quote ISOC
materials intensively, etc., but we don't go in in a corporate way. I
believe that this has proven to be a wise strategy given our circumstance
and that it may be different for others.

I will be glad to share more information and documents with those
interested. This is part of the now long experience of engagement with
law-making and public policy we have developed in ISOC Mexico.

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .
     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

Tels. +52-(1)-55-5105-6044, +52-(1)-55-5418-3732

*Mi blog/My blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
*LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
*Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn,
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
*Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
 Participa en ICANN, http://www.icann.org
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

  _____  

Desde: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] en nombre de Eduardo Diaz
[eduardodiazrivera at gmail.com]
Enviado el: domingo, 13 de mayo de 2012 08:49
Hasta: Rudi Vansnick
CC: Chapter Delegates; Chapters European
Asunto: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Netherlands is First Country in Europe with
Net Neutrality

Rudi: 

This great news indeed.

Our chapter is working with a couple of legislators in Puerto Rico to pass a
similar law. Let's see how far we can go with it. 

-ed

On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 5:12 AM, Rudi Vansnick <rudi.vansnick at isoc.be>
wrote:

<http://e2ma.net/go/11036753017/208894755/234081773/1411202/goto:http:/advoc
acy.globalvoicesonline.org/2012/05/09/netherlands-net-neutrality/>
Netherlands is First Country in Europe with Net Neutrality
<http://e2ma.net/go/11036753017/208894755/234081774/1411202/goto:http:/advoc
acy.globalvoicesonline.org/2012/05/09/netherlands-net-neutrality/> 
May 8th, 2012 is a day to celebrate in The Netherlands as it becomes the
first country in Europe to protect its citizens by enshrining net neutrality
into law. The Netherlands is also implementing privacy protections for users
against wiretapping and disconnection by the Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), which will no longer be able to interrupt traffic of users unless it
is proven to be in the public interest. (Global Voices, 5-8)

http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2012/05/09/netherlands-net-neutrality
/

Rudi Vansnick

——————————————— Internet Society Belgium  —————————————————
President - CEO                      Tel +32/(0)9/329.39.16
<tel:%2B32%2F%280%299%2F329.39.16> 
rudi.vansnick at isoc.be            Mobile +32/(0)475/28.16.32
<tel:%2B32%2F%280%29475%2F28.16.32> 

Dendermondesteenweg 143        B-9070 Destelbergen  BELGIUM

 <http://www.internetsociety.be> www.internetsociety.be       "The Internet
is for everyone"

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