More Bell Canada misinformation on net neutrality

Bell Canada, is in classic corporate spin master mode now that their so-called "traffic shaping" practices have been exposed for all the world to see.

Rule number one of corporate spin...confuse people!

Writing on his blog on IT World Canada, Mirko Bibic does an excellent job disecting Bell's corporate speak here. The comments from posters are also very informative.

He even goes so far as to suggest that a new nationalized company (what we in Canada call a "crown corporation") be setup to manage the telephone line infrastructure.

"We can give Bell a simple choice.

One option would be for this last mile infrastructure to be spun off into a separate company that would then become a crown corporation. Bell can even be given a contract to manage the services of this company for a 10 year period, after which it would be open to competition or to employees of this new crown corporation. With a separate corporate structure, Bell Canada would clearly no longer be able to allege that they “own” this infrastructure, or claim they can manage it any way they see fit.

Another option would be to allow Bell to retain ownership of this infrastructure, as long as they paid a rental fee at a fair price for the right of way, as well as returning any government subsidies — including interest over the last 50 years. We would be fair and only backdate this for 50 years, even though they have received privileges for far longer. It would be clarified that the Crown Corporation would still be created, and while historical right-of-way would be grandfathered, it would be this new Crown Corporation that would own any new last-mile infrastructure."

In the Canadian federal election campaign of 1972, New Democratic Party leader David Lewis ran a populist campaign against "The Corporate Welfare Bums". With all of the special rights of way that Bell Canada has obtained over the last century to lay it's cables, poles and other equipment, I think that Bell is the sort of corporation that David Lewis was referring to!

Rambling thoughts on receiving an e-mail hoax

E-mail has been around for about thirty years. E-mail hoaxes and "urban legends" have been zipping around the internet for almost as long.

If you've been using e-mail for the past decade or so, you can easily spot them. They're the messages that tell you to forward them to "everyone you know".

In the past they were usually about computer viruses for which there was "no known cure". Mind you it's been a few years since I've seen one of these.

There are 70,000 "real" items of malware circulating in the wild for the Microsoft Windows operating system. For the free software GNU/Linux and even the non-free MacOSX operating system, there are but a handful. It seems there might be a solution there.

I've seen e-mail hoaxes about supposed missing children. Again there are "real" missing children. Sometimes they are drafted as "child soldiers" in various civil wars around the world or they're sold into prostitution. Millions more die of starvation, disease and malnutrition. These children are all very real.

The most recent e-mail "hoax" that I received was about supposed HIV infected syringes being placed on the inside of gas station (filling station if you're in the UK!) pump handles.

Again, my "handy dandy bs-o-meter" was reading full scale.

So, upon receipt of this message, I quickly entered this info along with the word "hoax" into my search terms in Google Search. Naturally I found out that this was another in a long line of urban legends. In fact this one has been circulating around the net for seven or eight years. I wonder why it took so long for me to receive this particular hoax?

But again there is a very real HIV/AIDS problem in the world. In Africa HIV/AIDS has reached pandemic proportions and whole generations of people in villages, towns and cities are being wiped out. Millions are dying and those with the power to take action have done very little to stop the pandemic.

Stephen Lewis, former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, most recently held the post of UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

When you hear Lewis speak, you can't help but notice the absolute sense of frustration and moral outrage at how little has been done in response to the crisis.

So the next time you receive a message that asks you to "send it to everyone you know"... don't. Do a quick "Google" to see if it's "real" or a "hoax".

More importantly, take a few minutes and give some thought to the "big picture" and what might be done about it.

Upon reflection, you might want to compose a message about these very real problems and send it to all of your friends. That would be very worthwhile.

Stop The Throttler!

The campaign against Bell Canada and Rogers attempts to control how Canadians access the internet is picking up steam!

You can sign the online petitions to the CRTC and House of Commons at "Campaign for Democratic Media".

Brazil: 430,000 voting terminals to run GNU/Linux!

There will be no "dimpled chads" or other voting irregularities in this year's election in Brazil.

Brazil's Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Brazilian Election Supreme Court) will be moving all 430,00 of their voting terminals to the GNU/Linux operating system and the machines will run free and open source software (FOSS). Currently Brazil's election computers run a mix of "Microsoft Windows CE" and "VirtuOS".

You can read about it here.

While I personally prefer the good old-fashioned "paper ballots" system we use here in Canada, if you're going to use computers it's best to use "free software".

Why free software?

It's because with free software you always have access to the source code or "recipe" used to create the software. You also have the freedom to change the software to make it do what you want it to do.

With proprietary software the source code is a corporate trade secret and you never know exactly what it's doing. And changing or altering the software in any way is forbidden.

That opens the door to the kind of electoral fraud we saw in the so-called "election" of George Bush II.

Since the election of Workers' Party candidate Inacio "Lula" da Silva as president in 2003, the Brazilian government has been a world leader in the adoption of free software in government. They see it as a means to both strengthen democracy and develop the national economy.

You can read more about it here.

Labour takes on "Net Neutrality"

I'm very pleased to see that the labour movement in Canada is beginning to take on the very important issue of "Net Neutrality".

Recently, James Clancy, president of the 340,000 member National Union of Provincial Government Employees (NUPGE) issued an open letter to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) demanding an investigation into the so-called "traffic shaping" practices of Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.

What's "Net Neutrality"?

It's the very simple principle that no matter who you are or what your content is that your internet stuff travels through the vast network of cables and switches at the same speed as everyone elses.

Whether you are Google, Microsoft, Apple or "Joe & Mary's Blog About Their Pet Poodle", you are treated equally. That's supposed to be how the internet works. But in Canada it hasn't worked that way for quite some time.

First it was the cable internet service providers like Rogers that began so-called "traffic shaping" i.e. slowing down file sharing protocols like "bittorrent". They were very cagey about releasing info on these practices. It had to be pried out of them by bloggers and net activists.

Now Bell Canada has gotten in on the act, slowing down bittorrent traffic during so-called "peak periods". What makes it worse in Bell's case, is that they are not only throttling down their own customer's traffic, but also traffic on lines that are leased by third parties. So if you want to dump Bell Sympatico and go to an alternative DSL provider that doesn't throttle traffic, you're out of luck!

There's nothing particularly dastardly about using bittorrent. I use it myself for downloading copies of versions of the free software GNU/Linux computer operating system. It's the most efficient way to move large files around the internet.

Recently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) began distributing an historical documentary television series on Canadian prime ministers using bittorrent.

So, our taxpayer-funded public broadcaster pushes out a television series on the net, but the internet service providers (ISP's) slow down your ability to grab the files. Nice how that works eh?

It's also important that the labour movement take this issue on because it was union members who were the very first victims of outright censorship by an ISP. In the summer of 2005, Telus blocked all of its customers access to a couple of websites operated by the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) during a labour dispute.

Of course in their ham handed stupidity, Telus not only blocked access to the union sites, they also blocked access to hundreds of other websites.

In the United States, where activists are miles ahead of Canada on this issue, Telus' net censorship was used as an example of what can happen without net neutrality legislation.

So how about dashing off an e-mail to your MP?

Or, given that our current government is only a non-confidence motion away from defeat, making it an election issue.

Sit Down! Sit Down! Sit Down for Your Rights!

Okay first my apologies to Bob Marley or at least his spirit.

I've just returned from five weeks in Europe having spent time in Spain, France, Italy and the UK. It's nice to be returning at a time when winter is over and that meter high pile of snow in front of the house has pretty much melted away.

My hosts in the wonderful city of Bologna, Italy (more on that later!) were my old friends Judy and Larry Haiven and their son Omri. Inevitably, we ended up in the supermarket at the local shopping mall around the corner from their residence.

In Toronto, I work across the street from a "Great Canadian Superstore", one of those supermarkets that sells not only groceries, but also kitchenware, furniture, clothing, household items, has a pharmacy and an electronics store. So consequently I spend alot of time there. Also they're unionized by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) which allows me to shop there with a clear conscience.

In Bologna, the supermarket was of a similar size and carried pretty much the same types of items. It's also unionized.

But, there were two big differences! First of all, the supermarket in Bologna is a cooperative and I understand part of a chain of cooperative supermarkets that operates throughout northern Italy.

Secondly, unlike the folks who work across the street from me here in Toronto, the folks working the checkout counter in Bologna were all sitting down instead of standing. Their work stations were especially designed so that they could do their jobs seated and facing the customer. No standing, twisting and turning required as is the practice in this part of the world.

So is this "seated" checkout counter staff just a leftwing nuts and berries thing?

Not at all.

Later I spent a couple of weeks in London, England with my good friend Eric Lee, editor of the "Labourstart" global labour rights web portal.

We made quite a few visits to the local "Tesco" supermarket chain. Tesco is also unionized, but I understand is just as combative an employer as Walmart is here in North America. But again, the folks working the checkout counters were seated instead of having to stand. And my understanding is that this is the practice throughout Europe. Cashiers sit down on the job.

I'm sure some bean counting time and motion study person will come up with some bizarre rationale about why cashiers in North America have to stand. I'm also sure that the display on my handy-dandy "bs-o-meter" will be showing full scale! (By the way my "bs-o-meter" runs on free software!).

In any case Judy was much quicker on the draw and you'll find her blogpost on this issue here

Cashiers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your sore feet, legs and aching backs!