The Defining Issue for the Decade–Net Neutrality
Who’s in control of the Internet? Nobody really, and that’s why it has been such a fertile ground for innovation. You don’t need to ask permission, or buy a license, or sign a contract to launch a new website or application on the Internet. And when you do, you can reach virtually all of the hundreds of millions of users out there.
That fundemental premise of the ‘Net is now being questioned. The issue was first raised years ago, by folks seen as Chicken Littles (here’s a great backgrounder). However, national telecommunications policy is swinging back in favor of the incumbents, and that puts net neutrality at real risk.
Real risk of what? That the owners of the last mile connections to users (a small number of large cable and telephone companies), will assert themselves as gatekeepers between the content and the consumers. It is in their best interests to establish that control for their economic advantage, selecting winners and losers and discriminating in who can connect to whom. That is the antithesis of net neutrality, and would mark the end of the Internet innovation era, and the beginning of the slide towards the business/content model that exists in other mass media distribution like cable, satellite and network broadcasting, and may threaten emerging applications like voice over IP.
It’s also worth pointing out that this is the same issue as open access networks, ones that allow you a choice of ISP (unlike cable-provided Internet access where you have a choice of one). Choice and competition are good for all of us.
- More info: The Center for Digital Democracy