FCC To Hold Major "Traffic-Shaping" Public Hearing Monday

February 24, 2008

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an open public hearing Monday on what is often referred to as "traffic-shaping."

An example of traffic shaping is the recent controversies between Comcast and BitTorrent, in which Comcast has admitted that it shunts high-bandwidth Torrent packets to provide its broadband networks with more equilibrium for a greater number of users.

The meeting will be held at HarvardLaw School: specifically, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA -- 10AM-4PM- and will feature a wide variety of commenters with different beliefs on traffic shaping.

Here's the program:

11:00 a.m. Welcome/Opening Remarks

11:45 a.m. Technology Demonstration – Gilles BianRosa, Chief Executive Officer, Vuze,
Inc

12:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 1: Policy Perspectives:

Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Free Press
Yochai Benkler, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Faculty Co-Director,Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
Daniel E. Bosley, State Representative, Massachusetts
David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation
Tom Tauke, Executive Vice President – Public Affairs, Policy and Communications, Verizon Communications
Timothy Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Christopher S. Yoo, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Technology,
Innovation, and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School
1:30 Lunch break

2:15 Panel Discussion 2: Technological Perspectives

Daniel Weitzner, Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Decentralized
Information Group
Richard Bennett, Network Architect
David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Eric Klinker, Chief Technology Officer, BitTorrent
David P. Reed, Adjunct Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media
Lab
Scott Smyers, Senior Vice President, Network & Systems Architecture Division,
Sony Electronics Inc.

3:45 p.m. Closing Remarks
4:00 p.m. Adjournment