On the final day of Silicon Flatirons’ Digital Broadband Migration conference the assembled were treated to presentations from broadband carriers and content creators. One point that all seemed to understand is the need for expanding the capacity of broadband, in terms of both scope and speed. Video streaming, accounting for little traffic only five years ago, now represents 60-70% of the traffic on the net backbone. Walt Disney streamed over half a billion videos last year alone. Yet the hobgoblins of digital abuse seem to scale in parallel to investment and expansion: Currently 20% of internet users consume 80% of the available downloadable bandwidth and 97% of upload capacity. Pirates pillage copy written material in ever greater numbers, to the point that DVD sales fell 15% in 2008, a huge blow to the studios given DVDs account for 70% of a film’s profits. This begs the question, What is the best way to protect billions in investment – both for carriers and content creators – from those who abuse the technology? Should regulation be enhanced, reduced, or merely enforced? These questions, bandied about in the ballroom of the University Memorial Center, will shape the way we interact for many years to come.
Keynote Address – Richard Lynch, CTO Verizon
Lynch focused on the efforts of Verizon at creating “the next generation of networks on which the internet’s future depends,” a relevant topic considering the company is a major player in both the wireless and wired space. In the wireless space, Verizon is actively pursuing 4th generation wireless and long-term evolution, which it plans to have up and running this year. On the wired front, Verizon offers FIOS which represents the leading provider of fiber to homes. Lynch noted among the advantages of this platform the ability to upload at the same speed as download, currently 50 megabits per second. Also on the horizon are converged services as consumers increasingly desire an “integrated digital environment.”
As a CTO Lynch noted he usually steers away from policy but did offer his perspectives of three key factors for policy makers to consider
- Previous communication policy has focused on managing scarcity rather than growing capacity. Growing capacity will create a better network to serve the needs of more consumers
- All broadband is not created equal and some solutions may be better equipped to handle new uses (e.g. consumers uploading greater quantities of content).
- Focus on real customer needs rather than hypothetical problems when considering network management.
Panel Discussion – The Future of Internet Content and Services
- Ari Fitzgerald (moderator), Partner at Hogan & Hartson
- Stacy Dogan, Professor of Law at Northwestern
- Eric Goldman, Associate Professor and Director of High Tech Law Institute, Santa Clara University
- Pamela Samuelson, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley
- Michael Gallagher, President and CEO of Entertainment Software Association
- Preston Padden, Executive VP at Walt Disney Company
- Pamela Passman, Corporate VP and Deputy General Council for Microsoft
The final panel of the event shifted the focus away from infrastructure to take a dive into content on the internet. The first two presenters discussed aspects of intellectual property as applied to the digital realm. Dogan focused on trademark issues, specifically those which may arise when a customer searches for trademarked words and receives ads that may infringe on the company’s trademark. A key issue, still to be played out in the courts, is whether search engines providing these ads can be found in violation of trademark law.
Samuelson highlighted copyright issues that have emerged, bringing the historical perspective from the initial concerns presented in the National Information Infrastructure white paper published 15 years ago. Among the factors not anticipated in this assessment were user resistance to digital rights management and the explosion of user generated content. Despite the challenges of applying copyright law to the internet, Samuelson cautioned against expanding or strengthening relevant law for the digital realm feeling that better enforcement of existing statutes likely represented a preferable alternative.
Goldman focused on one particular content site, the user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and why he believes its model will ultimately fail. Goldman does not see it possible for the site to both maintain quality content and remain freely editable. Any editable site is vulnerable to vandals and spammers who reduce content quality, but measures undertaken to keep this harmful content out also serve as barriers to those wishing to add legitimate content. Goldman also noted the site’s reliance on a small group of active editors who may eventually burn out as they receive no remuneration or credit for their work.
The other panelists all represented content providers in one form or another. While each company has approached and experimented in the digital realm differently, two recurring themes came across:
- Piracy is a serious problem which damages incentives to create innovative and rich content. A variety of methods need to be employed to help combat it.
- Content providers must continue to adapt in order to provide legal digital content to consumers in the forms they demand (i.e. don’t miss the boat like the music industry did).
Passman offered a good summation of the panel noting the overall goal of all policy and business actions in the realm must be to create and maintain “a healthy and sustainable online ecosystem for content.”
Closing Address – Irwin Jacob, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Qualcomm
Jacobs began by providing a brief history of his company. Qualcomm originally developed CDMA technology for the cellular industry. The company was able to negotiate favorable contracts with cellular device manufacturers – including upfront license fees and royalties on any devices that used the technology – because according to Jacobs few manufacturers really expected to use the technology. A key to the company’s continued relevance has been providing new technology that helps to meet customer demands – specifically the ability to transmit more data and perform multiple activities on a single device. Among QualComm’s more recent innovations are the snapdragon platform for use in mobile computing devices (first used in Toshiba’s TG01) and mediaflo which provides 20 television channels to mobile devices.
