Vint Cerf, Stephen Crocker, David Reed, Lauren Weinstein and Daniel Lynch, some of the early names in the development of the Internet, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, supporting the FCC's proposed stronger Web access rules and arguing that they would lead to competition and innovation. Vint Cerf is currently employed as VP and Chief Internet Evangelist by Google, which together with other Internet companies recently sent a letter to the FCC supporting net neutrality.
"We believe that the existing Internet access landscape in the U.S. provides inadequate choices to discipline the market through facilities-based competition alone. Your network neutrality proposals will help protect U.S. Internet users' choices for and freedom to access all available Internet services, worldwide, while still providing for responsible network operation and management practices, including appropriate privacy-preserving protections against denial of service and other attacks.
"One persistent myth is that "network neutrality" somehow requires that all packets be treated identically, that no prioritization or quality of service is permitted under such a framework, and that network neutrality would forbid charging users higher fees for faster speed circuits. To the contrary, we believe such features are permitted within a "network neutral" framework, so long they are not applied in an anti-competitive fashion."We believe that the vast numbers of innovative Internet applications over the last decade are a direct consequence of an open and freely accessible Internet. Many now-successful companies have deployed their services on the Internet without the need to negotiate special arrangements with Internet Service Providers, and it's crucial that future innovators have the same opportunity. We are advocates for "permissionless innovation" that does not impede entrepreneurial enterprise.
"We commend your initiative to protect and maintain the Internet's unique openness, and support the FCC process for considering the adoption of your proposed nondiscrimination and transparency principles."
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Net neutrality enforced by the government is likely to produce unintended consequences. Granting government more control of the Internet is a monumentally bad idea. Almost no government agencies shrink and government control almost always grows. It took the ICC almost 100 years to reverse the growth of control over the railroads and to actually remove regulations.
By supporting net neutrality as enforced by the government, you are saying you want a political beast that depends on campaign contributions from Google and Microsoft to have a say in how your Internet is run.
While the concept of net neutrality is good, the implementation by the government is a horrible idea. Gather the industry up and cause it to happen without (corrupt) government involvement.
Posted by: Ed Bradford | November 17, 2009 at 02:23 PM