Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 08:45:31 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
To: Craig Aaron <caaron@freepress.net>
Subject: Re: [ NNSquad ]  The New McCarthyism of Google-Baiting Spreads Its Stain

Craig,

I hope you're having a good holiday weekend.

Let me cut to the chase on this if I may.

It is my belief that you, I, *and* Google are much closer together on
our "net neutrality" wish list than any of us are close to the desires
of the Big Telecom lobby.  I base this assumption on what I know of
Free Press' technical policy positions and considerable time I've
spent communicating with Google policy people on these issues.

I also believe that the odds of us getting most of what we want are
vanishingly small in the current environment -- and after November are
likely to become much smaller still.  Almost all the marbles are in
the hands of the ISPs in terms of lobbying expertise and everything
else (as I've written about many times).  Anything the ISPs can do to
maintain the status quo as they further build out their concept of the
Internet is to their advantage.

It's fairly clear that under the existing conditions there's no
effective path for the FCC to do diddlysquat on these issues without
triggering legislative backlash and endless litigation.

We all know this at the gut level -- including Google.  In any major
battle between Google and Big Telecom, the odds vastly favor the
latter.

Google's goal -- as I understand it -- is to *try* find some sort of
regulatory framework that can accomplish *anything* positive in the
long run in this space.  The details of the Google/Verizon proposal
really are largely irrelevant, because everything can change down the
line -- it's having some sort of workable framework for regulatory
action that matters.  The FCC knew even before that any attempt to
(for example) do a Title II push -- my basically preferred path -- was
unlikely to stand.

There's an old saying that insanity can be defined by doing the same
things over and over and expecting a different outcome.  It would be
insane for Google to just sit there continuing to push their preferred
"pure" net neutrality agenda when it had no realistic chance of
happening -- knowing that meanwhile the ISPs just get stronger under
the status quo.

So Google accepted the reality of the ISP's vast leverage and have
tried to forge a path that will at least get us onto a regulatory
model that can be adjusted, changed, and made far better down the
line.  I believe this is a logical and positive course, that's why I
support it, even though some of the initial details -- which can all
be made better down the line -- aren't necessarily my optimum
preferred choices.

So I hope you can see why I am so "turned off" (to date myself with
this antique phrase) by seeing what I would view as the toxic politics
of character assasination and misguided protests being employed by
groups such as Free Press and Consumer Watchdog in this case.  Google
is ultimately the best *friend* to Net Neutrality that we're likely to
have.  Calling them traitors, staging photo op protests, and comparing
its CEO with a child molester in Times Square are to my sensibilities
attacking exactly the wrong party and making a dismal net neutrality
situation far worse.  It's destructive, not constructive.  It takes
us farther from where we want to be, not closer.

Even if I had not been personally attacked in your piece -- I have a
pretty thick skin -- I find such attacks abhorrent -- not only on an
abstract level, but because I believe they ultimately give aid and
comfort to those parties who are on the other side of most of these
issues.

While I indeed understand how frustration can trigger unwise actions,
you are still in my opinion engaging in a destructive deployment
of one of the worst kinds of politics -- attacking those who actually
*support* many of the same positions that you do, and using guilt by
association and "if they won't play the game exactly the way we want,
then they are the New Enemy" tactics.  And so on.

This is exactly the sort of toxic political gamesmanship that has led
this country into the escalating mess in so many areas that its in
today.  I cannot support it, and I will condemn it in the strongest
possible terms at my every opportunity.

That said, I am always open to constructive dialogue on any of these
issues -- my goal in this respect remains to have the best possible
Internet for the world and its community of users.

Again, have a good what's left of the weekend.

--Lauren--