NETWORK NEUTRALITY IS ESSENTIAL TO A DEMOCRATIC AND DYNAMIC INTERNET
[SOURCE: HearUsNow.org, AUTHOR: Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America]
[Commentary] A recent blog from the Center for Digital Democracy attacked the
broad coalition fighting for network neutrality and called on public interest
advocates to change their focus on Internet policy. This proposed change would
be a huge mistake for public interest advocates fighting to promote consumer
and citizen interests. Protecting consumers and citizens from abuse by the
commercial sector and promoting consumer sovereignty and democratic discourse
are interrelated, but distinct objectives. Both are essential for a vibrant and
innovative online economy and public sphere. And consumer advocates must be
vigilant about both. The suggestion that a neutral network would be open in
name only rests on a fundamental failure to understand what is happening on
the 21st century Internet, while projecting the evils of the twentieth century
broadcast media model into an entirely different communications space where it
just does not fit. Network neutrality/open access is critical because it
ensures that consumers and citizens can easily escape from the walled-gardens
and gated-communities that the cable and telephone companies like to build. And
the world they escape into is a communicative space that is more varied and
vibrant than any that has ever existed, or had even been contemplated. The
communicative space created by network neutrality/open access combined with the
Internets end-to-end principle is varied and raucous primarily because the
production of content by people (not corporations) dominates in cyberspace, but
also because the ease of entry on a neutral, digital network ensures a
continuous flow of new commercial content and innovative applications.
http://www.consumersunion.org/blogs/hun/2007/06/network_neutrality_is_essentia.html
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