Hidden away on page A13 in this Sunday's Albany Times Useless-- I mean Times Union-- was a small article from Associated Press titled F.C.C. plans to propose 'Net neutrality' rules. Yesterday F.C.C.'s chair Julius Genachowski delivered a speech to the Brookings Institute which included some proposals that would help ensure that the internet remain an information highway without threat of slow down or shut out of content by I.S.P.s. The full content of this speech is available at the following u.r.l.:
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009/0921_broadband_communications.aspx
The bad ol Internet Service Providers are upset and crying government interference.
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125354032776727741.html ). They want to be able to do things like select what legal content (especially if it is related to a service which their own company provides) is allowed to consumers or at least how fast such content can be accessed. Nothing in the proposal will prohibit providers from adopting tier plans or blocking high-end users from downloading stuff during peak flow times. Their objection that folks will merely move away from the I.S.P.s who block content they want is meaningless in the face of a certain reality that right now in any geographical area of the United States, very few of us have the option of moving from one I.S.P. to another. In a field where my choice is between two providers, that is hardly any choice at all.
radical sapphoq says: Bravo Julius!
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