[governance] Net neutrality & IG

[Danny Butt]

>> Is "net neutrality" a global issue?

Good question Bret

It is a "global issue", but from my POV, like many of the issues most  
loudly raised in the US (e.g. FoE), the term frames in a way that  
takes a simplistic or formalist view of a situation which is much  
more complex in real life. If we think of the decline of neutrality  
(wide-spread de-peering, walled gardens, DRM) as being co-extensive  
with the linguistic and socio-economic diversification of Internet  
use, then the "good old days of neutrality" weren't really as neutral  
as we might hope. Or at least we might need to do some serious  
investigations on the limits of the scope of the internet at that  
time that allowed neutrality to seem a viable principle.

More to the point re: IGF, the economic drivers for retaining control  
of the customer's content experience (and not providing a free ride  
for competitors) are strong, and the potential policy remedies seem  
weak and dispersed, or at least more interventionist than the neo- 
classical ideology of US internet community would care for.  I see it  
as more of a "worthy utopian principle", like transparency, than an  
"issue".

Regards,

Danny



-- 
Danny Butt
db at dannybutt.net | http://www.dannybutt.net
Suma Media Consulting | http://www.sumamedia.com
Private Bag MBE P145, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Ph: +64 21 456 379 | Fx: +64 21 291 0200


On 04/04/2006, at 3:29 AM, Bret Fausett wrote:

> When I think about "net neutrality" I think about a bundle of U.S.- 
> centric
> issues regarding the way ISPs service the last mile connection to the
> Internet. Perhaps this is just my view as a U.S. citizen. Is "net
> neutrality" a global issue?
>
>          Bret
> _______________________________________________
> governance mailing list
> governance at lists.cpsr.org
> https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance

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