Public Knowledge's annual IP3 award ceremony was held virtually on September 23rd for its 18th year. The event serves as "a special occasion to honor those who have made significant contributions in the three areas of IP: Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol" over the past year or over the course of their career. 

Among the honorees was ILSR's own Christopher Mitchell, who received the Internet Protocol Award. With a list of present and past winners including Tim Wu, Mignon Clyburn, Tim Berners-Lee, Sascha Meinrath, and a host of other hard-working and thoughtful champions of a free, open, and universally accessible Internet, he was in good company. 

The full list of winners for 2021 was:

Information Policy Award will be presented to Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League.

Our Intellectual Property Award will be posthumously presented to Sherwin Siy. He was a tech policy activist whose expertise spanned a range of fields including copyright, privacy, telecommunications, and free expression.

Our Internet Protocol Award will be presented to Chris Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis.

And our President's Award will be presented to Senator Amy Klobuchar — one of the Senate’s foremost leaders on tech issues like platform regulation and broadband opportunity.

Public Knowledge serves as the vanguard of progressive policy in media, technology, privacy, infrastructure, and regulation, and we are honored to count them and the rest of the honorees as allies in the fight for fast, affordable, reliable Internet access for all. 

Public Knowledge, a nonprofit organization devoted to ensuring that "copyright, telecommunications, and Internet law" evolve and continue to be regulated in pursuit of what is best for the public at large, will be holding its 18th annual Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol (IP3) awards virtually this September 23rd, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Register here.

Entering it's 20th anniversary this year, Public Knowledge has and continues to do pioneering, nuanced, and impactful work in pursuit of towards healthier markets, broadband access, media consolidation, net neutrality, spectrum reform, consumer privacy, and an array of other issues. The organization's Senior Policy Counsel John Bergmeyer joined the Community Broadband Bits podcast in 2017 to talk about cable monopolies, content providers, and market competition.

Three individuals will be presented awards for their work by Joy Boulamwini of the Algorithmic Justice League:

Our Intellectual Property Award will be posthumously presented to Sherwin Siy. He was a tech policy activist whose expertise spanned a range of fields including copyright, privacy, telecommunications, and free expression.

Our Internet Protocol Award will be presented to Chris Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis.

And our President's Award will be presented to Senator Amy Klobuchar — one of the Senate’s foremost leaders on tech issues like platform regulation and broadband opportunity.

Register for the event here to join the event and support the ongoing work by Public Knowledge.

As you plan your week, make sure you have access to YouTube early so you can livestream the "Opportunities for Bipartisan Tech Policy" from 9 a.m. - 12:30 EST. The event, which will be streaming from Washington, D.C., is sponsored by Next Century Cities (NCC), the American Action Forum, and Public Knowledge. 

Check out the agenda for the event.

Distinguished Guests

In addition to keynote conversations from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Senior Brookings Institution Fellow Blair Levin, our Christopher Mitchell will moderate a panel on rural broadband. The discussion on rural broadband will include input from:

• Jonathan Chambers of Conexon
• Shirley Bloomfield of the NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association
• Harold Feld from Public Knowledge
• Brent Skorup from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and
• Jamie Susskind of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s office

 Other panels will cover the topics of data privacy and security, and spectrum. Representatives from institutions such as the Georgetown Law Center on Privacty and Technology, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and ALEC will also be attending; expect a spirited event. It’s a half-day filled with policy, described by Next Century Cities as: 

[B]ringing together members of Congress, community leaders, and policy experts. Keynote conversations and panel discussions will work to determine key policy goals and action steps for the new Congress, with a specific focus on rural broadband, digital privacy and security, and spectrum legislation.

You can watch the livestream here and follow the conversation on Twitter: #BipartisanTech

The new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has not been shy about letting the public know that the agency, under the new administration, will undo many of the net neutrality protections of the Obama years. Unsurprisingly, the FCC website has been taxed with heavy traffic as concerned citizens reach out to comment.

Many of us consider what will be available to us if ISPs are able to decide which content has access to “fast lanes” through paid prioritization. Artists who create that content have the same concern.

This short video from Public Knowledge highlights the words of Francis Ford Coppola in his open letter to the FCC. He asks the agency to remember its place in history and to protect artistic innovation from corporate greed. In other words, “leave the gun, take the cannoli.”

Public Knowledge recently released a video on changes in the new administration’s FCC policies. One by one, progress made during the last eight years is being sliced up and doled out to the detriment of ISP subscribers.

Public Knowledge describes the video like this:

This video draws attention to the growing list of giveaways by Congress and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai to large cable and telecommunications companies that act as local broadband monopolies.

The video, which functions as a broad statement of themes, uses a series of pie slices to detail what consumers fear about the new administration’s telecommunications policy positions, in general language. The pieces of pie reflect multiple potential giveaways being heaped onto big cable and phone companies’ plates.

From selling private data without consent and eliminating some companies’ ability to offer affordable broadband, to forcing consumers to rent set-top boxes and embarking upon efforts to kill net neutrality, FCC Chairman Pai and many in Congress are promoting policies that give consumers the short end of the stick.

Check it out:

This is episode 241 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. John Bergmayer from Public Knowledge joins the show to talk about the "bundle" in the cable industry. Are cable bundles a bargain as advertised? What do customers want? Listen to this episode here.

John Bergmayer: You know the structure of the programing industry and the structure of the cable industry means effectively they're not being served. They’re getting ripped off I believe.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 241 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self Reliance, I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Cable subscribers often complain about bundling. Being forced to choose from video packages that include channels they don't want in order to get access to the content they do want. Why are we stuck in this model? And what are the ramifications for service providers? Especially now that so much content is available via the Internet. What are some of the concerns smaller cable providers encounter when negotiating for content? This week, Christopher talks with John Bergmayer, Senior Counsel from Public Knowledge who explains why Comcast and Time Warner Cable and other cable companies are so in love with the bundle. They discuss why it's difficult to move past this model and whether or not bundles are a bargain, as they are described in advertising. Or something quite different. Now here's Christopher and John Bergmayer, Senior Counsel at Public Knowledge, discussing unbundling and the world of cable.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell. Today I'm speaking with John Bergmayer, Senior Counsel for Public Knowledge, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC. Welcome to the show!

John Bergmayer: Yeah, thanks for having me Chris.

Christopher Mitchell: John, can you tell us a little bit about what Public Knowledge does for people that haven't been around to hear past interviews with Chris Lewis and Harold Feld and other great people that you have on staff?

On April 17th, FCC Commissioners voted unanimously to expand the use of spectrum previously reserved for U.S. Army and Navy radar systems. The FCC Report and Order creates the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) which establishes rules for shared use by licensed and unlicensed users.

This is a step forward to ensuring we are getting the most use out of the spectrum - by allowing different entities to share the spectrum when it is not being used in some geographic areas for the purpose it was originally allocated for. Milo Medin of Google explained this plan at Freedom to Connect - watch his presentation here.

According to the FCC Press Release [PDF], sharing will be managed with a three-tiered approach:

In addition to the protected incumbent tier, the Report and Order authorizes two commercial tiers of use in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service. The General Authorized Access tier, which allows any user with a certified device to operate without seeking any further Commission approval, will permit low-cost entry into the band, similar to unlicensed uses. A Priority Access tier will make geographically targeted, short-term priority rights to a portion of the band available through future spectrum auctions. One or more Spectrum Access Systems, operated by private commercial entities, will facilitate coexistence among the different user tiers.

Public Knowledge applauded the decision. Senior Vice President Harold Feld:

Today’s FCC’s actions lay the groundwork for changes in the very way we use wireless, allowing different levels of interference protection and network architecture that will make the wireless world of the future as radically different as the smartphone and the WiFi hotspot are from touchtone phones and the CB radios.

New America's Michael Calabrese, Director of New America's Wireless Future Project commended the FCC and pushed for more action:

If you are still contemplating whether or not to trek to New York City on March 2nd and 3rd for Freedom to Connect 2015, now is the time to take action. Tickets are going fast and seats are limited. ATTENDANCE IS BY REGISTRATION ONLY and this year the event is hot!

Register online through EventBrite.com.

A working agenda has just been posted. An email from David Isenberg, who tirelessly plans and promotes the event every year, described some of the issues to be discussed:

The aspects of the Internet's protocol suite that make it the success it has become

The all-fronts attack on the Internet by the National Security Agency

How community controlled networks, especially the fiber to the home networks being built by communities such as Chattanooga TN and Wilson NC, as well as alternative networks being built by Google, Ting and others, are challenging incumbent telcos and cablecos

Title II as the centerpiece of the FCC Open Internet Report and Order

The agenda will continue to develop as planning progresses, so be sure to revisit.

Guest speakers include:

• Chris Mitchell from ILSR and MuniNetworks.org
• Susan Crawford, Cardozo Law School
• Harold Feld, Public Knowledge
• Jim Baller, Baller Herbst Stokes & Lide
• Deb Socia, Next Century Cities
• Gigi Sohn, FCC
• Tim Wu, Columbia Law School

...and many, many others.