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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Parminder:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>> </FONT></SPAN>It is my humble opinion that between these two
positions <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>lies a world of difference, and the real battle
will be situated <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>in this space. I think the Internet as we
know - and as we <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>cherish in its egalitarian qualities - will be
history if Lessig's <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>version of NN is adopted by the new US
administration. <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>This in my view is the point in NN debate and
advocacy that <SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT> </SPAN>requires urgent attention. <SPAN
class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I am
repeatedly surprised at how you dismiss the relevance of nondiscrimination and
universal access to content and applications, which is the _only_ thing
important about NN, and elevate the economic equality argument (no one should be
able to pay more for better service), which is unimportant to ordinary people
and ultimately is impossible to achieve. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>You
say that the content and application discrimination issues "are easy to achieve"
and "dont matter much." Let me give you a very simple example of why you are
mistaken: VoIP.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>In
many developing countries, and in quite a few developing countries, the telco
has monopoly power and can use it to prevent Internet users from using voice
over IP as a substitute for their overpriced telephone service. Imagine then two
mobile phone providers. One is NN compliant - you can use VoIP as a substitute
for traditional mobile voice service. The other is not, it forces you to
use _their_ service and accordingly charges high prices for regular, and
especially international and roaming service. We are talking dollars per minute
rather than pennies per minute. The amount of surplus profit or revenue
generated by the second mobile ISP is, cumulatively, enormous, billions of
dollars across the globe. It affects the affordability of service, and the
consumers ability to choose qualities, modes and applications that they want. It
affects the ability of new companies to enter the market, with all that that
implies for innovation and competition.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I have
made a simple case for large benefits caused by the correct conception of NN.
Your turn. Please tell me, how does the ordinary user benefit from an
egalitarian ideologue telling them and everyone else that if they want to pay
more for a higher speed or better service they can't do it, even if it is
offered on a nondiscriminatory basis? Tell us all how leveling down the market
to the lowest common denominator enhances the public good.
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Take
the same logic to content discrimination. You blithely dismiss the idea of ISPs
or governments being able to say, "we don't like this web site or that service,
we are just going to block it." Doesn't matter? Wow. That need for liberty
of choice and openness is fundamental to the value the internet delivers. By
comparison, the equality of price and service you propose is meaningless. Who
cares whether i get the same price and service as everyone else, when the
content and applications delivered are censorsed and strangled and suppressed?
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=957330417-09012009><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Do you
argue that no one should be able to buy DSL service because there are people who
have dial up and can't afford DSL? sounds to me like that's the basis of your
argument. absurd. this is not an NN argument it's an economic egalitarian
argument. NN isn;t about that. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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