Net Neutrality

The debate over net neutrality seems to have many points of interest and frankly I think that all parties involved have something valuable to offer and all should be equally accessible to all.

Net Neutrality-"The idea that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites and platforms equally"(Wikipedia; Tim Wu, Columbia Law).

The debate as it stands now is that Internet content providers are having to pay up for taking up too much band with. By taking up Verizon's or Time Warner's band with they are claiming the right to charge. The problem in that lies that competitors and select high traffic providers may get preference and those who are less popular will have to compensate with higher prices. It seams plausible in a capitalist world and everything costs something, right? Is band with included?

I do think that there is value to provide better quality service. Therefore there is value for band with and I can understand why they think they have the right to charge. My major issue is the control that these new found gatekeepers have. As mentioned in the article found in the Wall Street Journal, "A Battle for Control of the Web", Cox cable is brought up as being directly linked with limiting access to users for their direct competition. Sounds like a monopoly. Now the term monopoly sounds dated and synonymous for Rockefeller, but think of it... a monopoly is basically any type of industry that provides an essential service to the public. It is usually in high demand (the Internet is in high demand & so is the information on it) and they have total control of what where who when and how it is distributed or in this case viewed. I think if these providers that think they can start to charge and not expect the entire industry to run into some major issues and customer complaints.

It seems that every ones interest is at stake because we are all susceptible to having our right to public information being kept private because our provider doesn't happen to do business with because NEWS XYZ is their competitor. Also as the professionals who drive the advancement in the field the topic is of special interest because they fear that it will limit progress to the technology itself, but also the information that the Internet provides. Oh yeah did I mention 1st amendment rights?

Overall I think it is quite clear my stance with network neutrality. There is a bigger picture here and I am sad to say that companies that want to charge or pick and chose who they allow access to is just another way to nickle and dime everyone. It isn't worth making service better for a few who can afford it, all content on the Internet has equal priority just as those who chose to view it do. And anyways how does your local service provider know what you want to look for, so why should they choose what you can access?