Pres-Elect Obama: What Does it Mean for P2P?

He is for net-neutrality and non-interference with specific applications and services like BitTorrent, but his new VP is the co-founder and chair of the Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus.

With Barack Hussein Obama now elected to become the 44th President of the United States it's important that we take stock of what his comments and positions have been on important technology and file-sharing related issues.

From BitTorrent throttling to network neutrality it's important to see where our new President stands so that we know what to expect in the future. I've been sort of worried about what a Democrat President may hold in store being that it usually has much stronger ties to Hollywood and other entertainment industry interests, but so far his rhetoric has made me hopeful.

BitTorrent Throttling

In November of last year an aide to Barack Obama was asked to clarify the Senator's technology policy and whether or not he would have made it illegal for Comcast to throttle BitTorrent. According to the aide he would, but that traffic shaping in general would be something he'd have to take a closer look at before addressing.

"Because most Americans only have a choice of only one or two broadband carriers, carriers are tempted to impose a toll charge on content and services, discriminating against websites that are unwilling to pay for equal treatment," reads his positions as outlined in his Barack Obama on Technology and Innovation. "This could create a two-tier Internet in which websites with the best relationships with network providers can get the fastest access to consumers, while all competing websites remain in a slower lane. Such a result would threaten innovation, the open tradition and architecture of the Internet, and competition among content and backbone providers."

Exactly. The federal gov'ts so-called "deregulation" of the telecommunications industry has done little to give consumers choice of services when most, myself included, have but a single broadband ISP or cable provider to choose from.

"Barack Obama supports the basic principle that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some web sites and Internet applications over others," the paper continues. "This principle will ensure that the new competitors, especially small or non-profit speakers, have the same opportunity as incumbents to innovate on the Internet and to reach large audiences."

So moreover, it appears that Obama is firmly on the side of an Internet that doesn't single out certain sites or applications simply because they may use more bandwidth than others. This good news for BitTorrent and other P2P users.

Net-Neutrality

Barack Obama has been pretty clear on this point and it's certainly a much better position than that of the Republican candidate John McCain who previously argued against net-neutrality and for a piracy crackdown.

From Senator Obama's site: "Protect the Openness of the Internet - A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. They have a right to receive accurate and honest information about service plans. But these guarantees are not enough to prevent network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of expression on the Internet."

Exactly. The Internet really is just a "series of tubes" that Sen. Stevens of Alaska took so much flak for in his reference some time back. It's a vital connection to the outside world much like a highway or other public thoroughfare that allows a person to travel from place to place. By allowing private businesses to control how people access it is an unjust limitation of their freedom of association, speech, and expression.

It's one thing to manage network traffic, but it's another thing entirely to begin making judgement calls on who and how people are able use it.

Obama's VP

Joseph Biden has been a longtime fanboy of entertainment industry cartels, most notably in 2002, when he asked the Justice Department to take a tougher stance on copyright infringers. His other more noteworthy efforts included the PROTECT Act of 2003 which made it a felony to forge keys to force players to play unauthorized computer programs, or to use forged keys to use counterfeited software. Another bill sponsored by Biden last year would limit how consumers would be able to record and play back digital content.

Most telling of all is that he co-founded and co-chairs the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, which includes over 70 members from both houses of Congress, including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

With Biden as VP it could be that Obama will have a voice whispering in his ear that will soon grow tough to ignore, especially with all of the President-elects rhetoric about JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.

If the MPAA and RIAA are able to get him to believe that Hollywood and the music industry are bleeding American jobs then Obama's opinion that "Intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age" may mean something entirely different. It could be interpreted that file-shares are then in fact stealing to the extant of a 1:1 loss, in that every illegally traded movie or song equates to lost a sale in real dollars.

Conclusions?

It's going to be quite interesting to see how Obama lives up to his promises and how he'll shape the executive branch in his own image over the next 4 years. He certainly can't do any worse than his predecessor.

As a friend of mine just pointed out in morning conversation, the real test of where our country's technology policies are headed and to what extant Obama will fulfill his campaign pledges will be exemplified through the cabinet appointments he makes after taking his oath of office.

He noted: "Just wait to see what his cabinet appointments are, that will tell you what this presidency is going to be like. What would be great is if he hires the best minds in their respective fields to fill the respective positions. But, if he just uses the positions as political bargaining chips, and puts in random fools with only political connections, well there's no real change with Obama and we were scammed. The Cabinet appointments will tell the tale."

With the new President getting to appoint a new "Piracy Czar" thanks to the recently enacted Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (PRO-IP Act) we can only hope that Obama doesn't put in "random fools" as seemed to always be the case with President Bush and instead chooses the "best minds in their respective fields."

Note to Obama: I think either one of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) founder's Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, or John Perry Barlow would be a perfect selection.

Update....

It's been brought to my attention that this past September the Obama campaign somewhat revised it's technology positions after announcing that Joseph Biden (D-DE) would be his running mate. A statement from an Obama campaign rep apparently released a statement saying that points out that the revisions "aren't the whole story," but as is usually the case, the devil is always in the details.

THX to Dustin Miller for the heads up!

jared@zeropaid.com