Google Fiber’s terms of service prohibition on server...
Google Fiber’s terms of service prohibition on server hosting on a residential Internet access line is reasonable network management and a common practice in the market, said Scott Cleland, NetCompetition chairman, in a blog post (http://bit.ly/132KuCF). Cleland, the author of…
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Search and Destroy: Why You can’t Trust Google Inc., was responding to a net neutrality complaint filed Oct. 24, 2012, to the Kansas Office of Attorney General from Douglas McClendon, a potential Google Fiber customer who “does not live in a city that Google Fiber currently serves” (http://bit.ly/12G3OLf). McClendon registered a Form 2000F net neutrality complaint against Google Fiber to the FCC, which directed him to file a complaint with the Kansas attorney general. McClendon submitted the same complaint to both regulators claiming that Google Fiber’s terms of service violate net neutrality rules. Google Fiber’s terms of service do not permit hosting on any type server using a Google Fiber connection, the complaint said. “In my professional opinion as a graduate in Computer Engineering from the University of Kansas (and incidentally brother of a google VP) I believe these terms of service are in violation of FCC-10-201,” said McClendon in his compliant. Google Fiber understands how a private Internet access provider can have “the power to pick and choose what you will be able ... to do on the Internet, and they are rightly defending their commercial Internet freedom to not have to subsidize competitive resellers of its gigabit access network,” said Cleland. In terms of competitiveness, Google Fiber understands how “arbitrageurs” try and game the system by claiming net neutrality violations to try to extract commercial concessions, which make no sense for Google to provide in a commercial or competitive sense, said Cleland. Google Fiber’s current net neutrality stance is “an important implicit recognition that competitive broadband providers have no regulatory obligation to subsidize over-the-top competitors to their various businesses,” said Cleland.