What are the myths?
Adam Bowman (2007-09-16)
When reading “The Myth of Network Neutrality and What We Should Do About It” I found myself falling into my usual gut reaction when I hear any discussion of regulation. Stop! However, after reading it again, I still couldn’t figure out what exactly the myths were. If the myths are as simple as some wanting all bits of information to receive the same priority, that everyone get charged the same for content providers and that there may be negative effects in quality of service if net neutrality regulations are imposed, then I don’t see why there is a debate.
Clearly not all bites are treated equally on the net right now as the article implies. Video, audio and online gaming all take mass amounts of information to be passed over the internet. Because of their real time need, the information sent with these applications should and does take precedence over an email or such.
As for the fear of media providers having too much power, too much power to do what? Telling a company how they can conduct business and disseminate information doesn’t seem right. There are times when businesses cross the line, but at least in this article, I didn’t see how anyone has in these instances.
Although the arguments made for net neutrality regulation in this article seemed rather limp, I wonder if it was in fact the article that didn’t discuss all the issues at hand.
I would really like to see a discussion of the negative effects of non-regulation?
