On 3 an 4 June 2008, the Institute cooperated with the Alcatel Lucent Foundation for Communication Research and the State Media Authority Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein in mounting a symposium on the topic of “Equal Opportunity for Content in Networks and on Platforms”.
The Symposium began by considering how developments in the area of networks and platforms do indeed open up new possibilities, but also bring with them new risks for the access, from content to user, and for service quality. Papers on the latest development in net-technology formed the premise: what potential for discrimination do Next Generation Networks have? What consequences will the shift to IP-nets have for the distribution of content? What influence does display technology have on the power relations in the television market?
A further section took up the economic consequences of the technical developments: what new models of returns and of added value chains evolve? What are the consequences of net neutrality or of its demise for the extension of the net on the one hand, and for the refinancing of content on the other?
Building on this, the regulatory questions were examined at the nexus of content and transmission technology. Who regulates the access to the user? What prerequisites are in force according to national and European law? Is there any need for an alignment of them?
