Google’s call for open Internet hedged in its own rules

(McClatchy) When Google was just a mighty search engine, the company championed an open, unfettered Internet. Now that it’s selling ultra-fast broadband Internet and TV service in Kansas City, Mo., with plans to repeat the service elsewhere, the tech giant bars customers from hosting servers on the Google Fiber network without written permission.

In some tech circles, that’s seen as at least a partial reversal by Google, one that might undercut the company’s position in coming regulatory battles over the concept known as net neutrality.

In the past, Google has been an outspoken advocate for net neutrality, a set of regulations that prevent Internet service providers from giving a preference to any type of Internet traffic over another or blocking any lawful content, applications, services or devices.

Google Fiber spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said in a statement that the company’s stance on net neutrality hadn’t changed.

“Google is a strong supporter of the open Internet,” Wandres said.

Yet in the fine print of Google Fiber’s terms of service, legally binding language forbids customers from hosting any type of server “unless you have a written agreement with Google Fiber permitting you to do so.”

“It really does feel like an about-face,” said Dan Andresen, an associate professor of computing and information sciences at Kansas State University. “There is kind of a sense of betrayal or concern that we thought Google was different (from other Internet service providers) and it turns out they aren’t.”

He said the policy might have a chilling effect on users, particularly entrepreneurs who may have moved to the Kansas City area to take advantage of Google Fiber’s lightning connection speed of one gigabit per second. That’s roughly 100 times faster than most home broadband connections in the United States.

Even Skype, a nanny cam, Slingbox or the program that monitors the solar panel on Andresen’s home could be considered servers, and therefore technically prohibited under Google Fiber’s terms of service, he said.

“Google has made this effectively a consumption-only device while marketing all these cool things you can do with this gigabit connection,” Andresen said. “Now they’re coming and saying, ‘Oh, but wait, there’s a whole huge class of things that now we are forbidding.’ ”

Indeed, often overlooked is that Google Fiber promises not just light-speed downloads, but also uploads of a gigabit-per-second, a full thousand times faster than most home consumers experience. That capability makes running a server – the sort of computer that can host a website or channel peer-to-peer file-swapping operations – far more practical at home.

The net neutrality issue surfaced in a complaint filed by Douglas McClendon of Lawrence, Kan. – an area where Google Fiber has yet to announce any plans to sell Internet hookups – with the Federal Communications Commission.

Google had until this week to reply. On Monday, the company argued in a letter to the FCC that its terms of service run consistent with industry standards and don’t violate the government’s open Internet rules.

The company noted in the letter that Google Fiber is intended as a residential offering only, not a business product. Despite general language in the terms of service, Google Fiber won’t prevent the legal, noncommercial use of applications such as multi-player gaming, videoconferencing and home security, the letter said.
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