The Closing of the European Internet

[ Thanks to Dangermouse for
this link. ]

“At least, that’s the most charitable explanation for
the fact that European politicians are on the brink of passing
legislation in the current Telecoms Package that will destroy a key
part of that openness, by allowing telecoms companies to
discriminate in the way that they handle IP packets according to
their type.

“This loss of net neutrality has been dressed up by proponents
as simply a case of allowing customers to shape the contours of the
market through their purchases, but as they well know, it’s
actually a matter of giving telecoms companies a gatekeeper
function that will let them control the Internet through
anti-competitive differential pricing.

“Tim Berners-Lee has emphasised the importance of net neutrality
in the creation of a level playing field that allows innovative new
services to emerge. Indeed, had there been no net neutrality when
he invented the Web, it is quite likely that the latter would never
have taken off, because closed rival services like AOL or
CompuServe could have offered to pay more for preferential delivery
of their content platforms.”

Complete Story