Guest post by Katherine Siddle, of the SLAIS LIBR 561 Information Policy class.

Paul Holden spoke on net neutrality issues in Canada at the BCLA’s information policy conference October 24. As a professional software engineer, Holden brings a technical perspective to this issue.

Holden defines net neutrality as the transmission of data on the internet without discrimination regarding content, destination, file type, application or protocols. Net neutrality ensures a “free” internet, where users can access, buy, do, and use almost anything they want. Since no task, user, or content is privileged above any other, the net is equitable (and therefore “neutral”).

Historically, net neutrality has been the norm in Canada. Service providers have lacked the technical ability to interfere with service, and as a result, Canada has no policies on net neutrality. However, Holden identified “creeping anti-neutral behaviors” sparked by providers’ desire to extract revenue from bandwidth services, and their newfound ability to restrict access.

Holden described two technical anti-neutral techniques:

1. Preferential treatment or traffic shaping

This approach has largely faded, as providers have had difficulty arguing in its favour.

2. Throttling (targeting data and limiting bandwidth)

Providers often argue in favour of using throttling to manage internet congestion (too many users using the network at the same time). However, Holden maintains that there are other ways of dealing with this problem.

Holden also offered two examples of anti-neutral behavior:

1. Comcast’s targeting of BitTorrent traffic in 2007.

2. Bell Canada’s “upstream throttling”

Holden warns that the results of a non-neutral network produces the same results as a censored network. A non-neutral networks is more dangerous, though, because arguments against throttling are harder to make and less established than arguments against censorship. Users, he warns, become casualties of service provider’s business models. A non-neutral internet may be a threat to our civil liberties and re-build the barriers to publishing and communications that the internet’ has previously lowered.

For more information on Net Neutrality (and suggestions for pro-neutral action) see www.saveournet.ca

Paul Holden is the Vice President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (BC FIPA), a non-partisan, non-profit society. FIPA was established in 1991 to promote and defend freedom of information and privacy rights in Canada.