[Wikimedia-l] is wikipedia zero illegal because it violates net neutrality?

[Martijn Hoekstra]

On Aug 26, 2013 6:30 PM, "JP Béland" <lebo.beland at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "And if it is illegal or borderline according to, say,
> netherlands, swiss, or german law, is it appropriate to do it in
> countries where the law is less developed? "
>
> As said Kevin, it is impossible to respect the law of all countries in
> every country (Wikipedia already fails at that in its current state by
> the way, with or without Wikipedia Zero). So no we cannot "just
> abstain from any
> activity which might be perceived as illegal somewhere". After that,
> are you suggesting we should apply the laws of some "developed"
> countries to all countries and just ignore the others, this is way
> more morally wrong in my opinion.
>
> That being said, the law on net neutrality you cited applies to ISP,
> which Wikipedia Zero or the WMF isn't, so it doesn't apply to it.
>
> But of course, we as a community and the WMF should still keep high
> ethical and moral standards.
>
> JP Beland
> aka Amqui
>
>

I do think there is some merit in the net neutrality argument, at least
sufficiently so to be open to discussion on whether or not offering
Wikipedia Zero is a good thing. It comes down to the question if we believe
that having a walled garden variety of internet consisting only of
Wikipedia for free, and with that undermining the market position for a
paid, open internet is a net positive. I'm inclined to say it is, but the
opposite position, though counter-intuitive, is pretty defensible.

-Martijn

> 2013/8/26, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com>:
> > Dutch telecommunication law, article 7.4a (the net neutrality article),
> > paragraph 3:
> >
> > "Aanbieders van internettoegangsdiensten stellen de hoogte van tarieven
> > voor internettoegangsdiensten niet afhankelijk van de diensten en
> > toepassingen die via deze diensten worden aangeboden of gebruikt."
> >
> > "Offerers of internet access services do not make the tariffs for
internet
> > access services dependent on the services and applications that are
offered
> > or used via these services."
> >
> > If an isp offers Wikipedia for free, and some other internet usage not,
> > then it has a different tariff dependent on the service that is offered.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 6:05 PM, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com
>wrote:
> >
> >> To the best of my knowledge, every jurisdiction that has legislated on
net
> >> neutrality has concentrated on preventing ISPs from blocking,
degrading or
> >> charging extra for particular services; not one of them has a problem
with
> >> providers giving away certain data for free.
> >>
> >> S
> >> On 26 Aug 2013 04:51, "rupert THURNER" <rupert.thurner at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >>
> >> > hi,
> >> >
> >> > most people know some advantage of wikipedia zero and everybody can
> >> > look up the advantages by just typing wikipedia zero into some search
> >> > engine. as i am not sure about the answer and anyway get asked in
rare
> >> > cases what i think of wp:zero i guess it should be best answered on
> >> > the mailing list:
> >> >
> >> > is wikipedia zero illegal in some countries because it violates net
> >> > neutrality? and if it is illegal or borderline according to, say,
> >> > netherlands, swiss, or german law, is it appropriate to do it in
> >> > countries where the law is less developed? or should wikimedia
> >> > foundation apply a higher moral standard and just abstain from any
> >> > activity which might be perceived as illegal somewhere?
> >> >
> >> > just for the ones not so sure about net neutrality [1]:
> >> > Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on
> >> > the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially
by
> >> > user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached
> >> > equipment, and modes of communication.
> >> >
> >> > [1]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
> >> >
> >> > rupert.
> >> >
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
> > _______________________________________________
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