Yesterday I mentioned my strong support of Net Neutrality. As part of this, I signed on to a letter from a bunch of VC’s and entrepreneurs to Julies Genachowski, the chairman of the FCC. Fred Wilson reprinted the letter (he also signed it along with his partners at Union Square Ventures) in his post Net Neutrality.
Not surprisingly I received some emails and had a few conversations with folks that amounted to “I don’t really know anything about this Net Neutrality thing – can you explain it.” I did my best but after the third time decided to pull together a few public posts that might provide some perspective on the debate.
First, Ivan Seidenberg, the Verizon CEO slamming Net Neutrality. I have trouble reading this stuff (and am glad I wasn’t at the Supercomm speech) as I just violently disagree with his perspective. But – it’s useful context. One thing you’ll notice if you read across a bunch of this is that it’s pretty consistent language from the CEO’s of broadband providers, which is usually a clue as to how politicized this stuff is.
Next, you get a very interesting post from Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) and Lowell McAdam (Verizon Wireless CEO) titled Finding common ground on an open Internet. I’m not sure this post actually resolves anything, but it does a useful job of setting up the conversation and reinforcing the key principles being discussed and debated. It’s also ironic (or perplexing) given McAdam’s statements given the position that Seidenberg takes.
The best article is My chat with Google’s Vint Cerf in the Washington Post. If you don’t know Vint Cerf, he’s also commonly referred to as “the father of the Internet” It’s a great, clear interview that expresses the position I support.
I expect there will be an incredible amount of rhetoric around this over the coming months. Buckle up.
[...] Nuetrality – Not enough to post all my thoughts but Brad Feld has a good set of links. If you are not following this you should – the decisions being made will affect that way we are [...]
Pingback by NGV Driver » Blog Archive » Important Things…Links — October 25, 2009 @ 12:08 am
Let's take Comcast as an example. What if Comcast didn't build their network in the first place. What does Comcast owe people? It's their network, let user's demand that their service be fair through free speech. Net neutrality has been a successful effort in the grassroots community, why do we need the FCC? And as far as I can tell Comcast has throttled sites that use up the *limited* resources of their network. I'm sure there may be other fringe case examples, but there's just too much fear mongering about net neutrality. People are worried that the internet is going to become some corrupt marketplace for which websites will be given priority for those who pay off the ISP's the most? A plausible argument, but practical given the current state of the internet? Maybe in Myanmar. User's ought to demand their internet be transparent, and if someone wants to stream HD content, they can pay more for it. It's Comcast's right. And it's your right as a consumer to demand transparency, not by the forceful hand of the government, but the invisible hand of the marketplace.
Comment by Trent — October 31, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
A bit of the topic but according to my understanding somehow related to the net neutrality.
Regulator want to push ISPs to adopt Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to fight copy right problem on the internet. So, ISPs would be required to adopt policies to detect copyright infringers. And then cut them off!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/t...
This looks completely opposite to the ISP position proposed by the net neutrality supporters. And also confusing considering Comcast P2P blocking case.
Comment by akriznik — November 9, 2009 @ 4:07 pm
[...] could be for you as an internet user, check out this graphic. To learn more, also check out these background links from venture capitalist Brad Feld. iii. Top Five Things Missing From Most Startup Pitches As the [...]
Pingback by N-List #1: This One Goes To Eleven « Blog Archive « Nathaniel Whittemore — November 9, 2009 @ 3:23 pm
Thank you in advance for your quick answer !. Very nice post.
Comment by alışveriş — November 28, 2009 @ 11:44 pm