关于网络中立性 Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality: This is serious
Submitted by timbl on Wed, 2006-06-21 16:35. :: Public Policy and the
Web

( real video, download m4v )

When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission.
Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried
that that is going end in the USA.

I blogged on net neutrality before, and so did a lot of other people.
(see e.g. Danny Weitzner, SaveTheInternet.com, etc.) Since then, some
telecommunications companies spent a lot of money on public relations
and TV ads, and the US House seems to have wavered from the path of
preserving net neutrality. There has been some misinformation spread
about. So here are some clarifications. ( real video Mpegs to come)

Net neutrality is this:

    If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service,
and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then
we can communicate at that level.

That's all. Its up to the ISPs to make sure they interoperate so that
that happens.

Net Neutrality is NOT asking for the internet for free.

Net Neutrality is NOT saying that one shouldn't pay more money for
high quality of service. We always have, and we always will.

There have been suggestions that we don't need legislation because we
haven't had it. These are nonsense, because in fact we have had net
neutrality in the past -- it is only recently that real explicit
threats have occurred.

Control of information is hugely powerful. In the US, the threat is
that companies control what I can access for commercial reasons. (In
China, control is by the government for political reasons.) There is a
very strong short-term incentive for a company to grab control of TV
distribution over the Internet even though it is against the long-term
interests of the industry.

Yes, regulation to keep the Internet open is regulation. And mostly,
the Internet thrives on lack of regulation. But some basic values have
to be preserved. For example, the market system depends on the rule
that you can't photocopy money. Democracy depends on freedom of
speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is
the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society
based on it.

Let's see whether the United States is capable as acting according to
its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying,
run by the misguided short-term interested of large corporations.

I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to
innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of
innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so
exciting, continue unabated.