Earlier today, FCC Chair Ajit Pai revealed his plan to scuttle existing regulations for internet service providers and replace them with promises from the industry that they won’t do anything bad. It is all in the name of innovation, declared Pai, but the innovator who created the World Wide Web and the very first website, is calling the Chairman out.
The 2015 Open Internet Order, which would be undone by Pai’s proposal, prevents ISPs from having any say in what you do online. They can’t block access to content; can’t slow down access to specific content; and they can’t speed up access to specific sites or services. Those rules would all be removed, replaced with vague, non-binding promises from ISPs.
To Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who created the Web in 1989 while working at CERN, the idea that your broadband provider could have any say in what you do online is antithetical to the entire concept of the internet.
“When I invented the web, I didn’t have to ask anyone for permission, and neither did America’s successful internet entrepreneurs when they started their businesses,” says Berners-Lee in his capacity as founder of the World Wide Web Foundation. “To reach its full potential, the internet must remain a permissionless space for creativity, innovation and free expression.”
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It seems the root problem is the huge monopolies that have been allowed to form, instead of keeping many smaller companies in competition in any given market area. Comcast shouldn't own NBC, NBC Universal and HULU; likewise AT&T shouldn't own Directv, Directv Now and Time Warner. If these were all separate companies competing in the same markets, they would have no choice than to allow consumers unlimited speeds just to vie for a decent customer base. The Free Market would be setting the rules, not the FCC!
ReplyDeleteBut....Al Gore said he invented the Internet!
ReplyDeleteAh 6:26 what you speak of sounds a lot like the government getting involved in capitalism. The rich boys up in their fancy leather chairs would never let that happen, Comcast, NBC, AT&T etc. all throw them too much money.
ReplyDeleteLook, either you are for the free market or you are not for the free market. You can't claim to be a free marketer and then complain when the government allows monopolies, or when the government no longer promotes "net neutrality." I have full confidence that the free market will work as intended. Do you?
ReplyDeleteThe internet is NOT a free market without net neutrality. It is not like an analog marketplace.
ReplyDeleteIf isp's control entry, access, and speed of competition.. then it is not a free market.
We don't like government intervention in the market... ISP's controlling access to the internet would be like just another entity controlling the market.
Net neutrality is the ONLY way to ensure innovation and competition.