If you are looking for a quick introduction to what net neutrality is all about and why you should care about it, you can’t do much better than the “Inside Risks” column in the current issue of the Communications of the ACM.
- Ma Bell’s revenge: the battle for network neutrality [subscription required] by Lauren Weinstein, “Inside risks” Communications of the ACM Volume 50, Number 1 (January 2007), Page 128.
If you can’t get that, an almost identical version appeared earlier on Weinstein’s blog as Why Consumers Should Care About Network Neutrality, Lauren Weinstein’s Blog (October 30, 2006). Lauren Weinstein is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility (www.pfir.org).
He says:
The outcome of this controversy will affect everybody who comes into contact with the Internet…
Neutrality is an aspect of the Internet that is so taken for granted that it seems invisible and intrinsic, but it has been critical to the Internet’s success to date.
…most Internet users simply don’t realize how drastically and negatively they could be affected if anti-neutrality arguments hold sway. Getting true network neutrality back after it’s been lost is likely to be effectively impossible. Except for the anti-neutrality camp itself, we’d all be worse off with a non-neutral Internet, and that’s a risk we simply must not accept.
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