Net Neutrality Actually Matters

It’s big. Microsoft is talking about it. Google is talking about it. It’s highly controversial and there are people on both sides of the argument. And since you’re reading this, it will definitely affect you. It’s almost scaring me. IANAL (I am not a lawyer). I don’t know what to think. But some things to consider…

  • Robert Scoble supports the bill
  • Google supports It’sOurNet.org and the bill
  • Telcos oppose the bill
  • Matt S, Kamal Jain, Mac Beach, and other individuals oppose the bill
  • If you believe in the free market, you should oppose the bill
  • Net neutrality is not guaranteed today, yet the Internet is fine
  • People support the bill when it helps them, oppose it when it hurts them

Tim Berners Lee said internet became popular because it was kept neutral. Well, but Tim does not realize that there was no law. It was kept neutral because that was what market demanded. If neutrality is the optimum path for future too then market will remain on this path after may be breifly experimenting. But if it is not then a law will hinder the growth of the internet by not allowing telcos to experiment and test whether something else is better.

Kamal Jain

I wish there were more time to dig into this. Net Neutrality SOUNDS so good, but after all it just another form of government regulation. Who’s to say that the government will always make the “fair” or “just” decision (and not be influence by Microsoft, the telcos, or no telling who else)? While it is true that the early days of the Internet were largely government funded, as it was largely composed of university, government, military lash-ups, much of the Internet infrastructure today is private, and relatively unregulated. Don’t like some particular aspect of “the net” then you can set up your own private network for some special use you have, but still have it connected to the larger network (once you work out your peering relationships, all without government “help” thank you very much).

Mac Beach

Like Ronald Reagan said: “The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

dmad

The cox-craigslist issue has NOTHING to do with Net Neutrality. The Net Neutrality bills actually have provisions that allow for security software. The craigslist incident is purely a software bug in the security software and they certainly need to fix it, but Net Neutrality can’t do anything about it because it allows for security software.

George Ou

2 Responses to “Net Neutrality Actually Matters”

  1. Gabriel Ogah says:

    I wholeheartedly support net’s neutrality. It certainly matters. Neutrality will keep the human mind open, accommodate wide divergent opinions and realize that diversity always beat inbreeding. It is only neutrality that guarantees the freedon to think worldwide. Net control means controlled thinking, the later which, is the bed-fellow of bigotry and insesitivity. Net neutrality is man’s best toll for enhancing world peace.

  2. […] Spread the word: related  |  bookmark it!  |  digg it!  |  reddit! // Used for showing and hiding user information in the comment form function ShowUtils() {document.getElementById(“authorinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(“showinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(“hideinfo”).style.display = “”; } function HideUtils() { document.getElementById(“authorinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(“showinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(“hideinfo”).style.display = “none”; } […]

Leave a Reply