Resources

Overview

What is Open Access?

Broadband/Open Access Press Releases

MAP Vice President Testifies Before FCC Workshop on Broadband Transparency

Media Access Project Joins Groups Calling for FCC Action to Preserve the Open Internet

Media Access Project Represents Dozens of Civil Rights and Public Interest Groups in a Nationwide Call for Network Neutrality Protections

MAP, Other Public Interest Groups Call for New FCC Approach to Develop Competitive Marketplace for Cable Boxes and Video Devices

MAP President to FCC: Net Neutrality Rules Would Protect the Public's First Amendment Rights

Broadband/Open Access Legal Filings

Request for National Broadband Plan Reply Comments

MAP, Free Press and Public Knowledge Press FCC to Stop Comcast's Internet Blocking

MAP and PISC Urge FCC to Protect Competition in 700MHz Auction

MAP and PISC Call For Changes to National Broadband Application

MAP Urges Congress to Support White Spaces

All Broadband/Open Access Legal Filings


Overview

The Internet has emerged as a critical new avenue of free expression in our society, truly becoming an “uninhibited marketplace of ideas.” But there is no guarantee it will remain an open and accessible communications and media resource. Deregulation and increasing consolidation in the telecommunications and broadband markets are threatening the Internet’s open and neutral nature and exacerbating the digital divide between those with access and those without.

Network Neutrality and the Comcast/BitTorrent Case

MAP has pressed for “network neutrality” policies for many years, urging the FCC to ensure that network operators do not block or slow down the transmission of certain types of online content just to achieve some financial or other benefit. Until 2007, MAP’s fights have involved mostly theoretical interpretations of what net neutrality really means.

That year, however, Comcast was caught red-handed to be directly manipulating or blocking its subscribers’ access to BitTorrent, a file sharing program. Together with Free Press and Public Knowledge, MAP filed a petition pressing the FCC to establish that blocking peer-to-peer communications like BitTorrent violates the agency’s “Internet Policy Statement” — four principles issued in 2005 that are supposed to guarantee consumers competition among providers and access to all content, applications, and services. In response to the strong legal pressure, the FCC made a decision to forbid Comcast from continuing these activities. Comcast has appealed, and MAP has joined as an intervenor to that case to protect this important victory.

Behind the technical and legal jargon of this case lies the fundamental definition of what is reasonable management of information on the Internet, our new and increasingly dominant communication technology. For broadband services to remain open to innovation and permit the widest public access, the federal government must implement rules to ensure that companies who control broadband networks avoid unfair, secretive, or opportunistic manipulation of online content. Precedent from the Comcast/BitTorrent case and future MAP legal cases involving specific forms of network management will determine a network operator’s ability to prioritize or interfere with traffic over broadband applications.

Development of Nationwide Broadband Infrastructure

MAP is closely involved in the federal government’s distribution of $7.2 billion allotted for broadband development by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Beyond providing strategic planning assistance, MAP advocates that stimulus funds be disbursed in accordance with core First Amendment principles of nondiscrimination and interconnection, to ensure that all citizens can freely and openly communicate across broadband platforms.