[governance] Re: network neutrality and the public internet

[Karl Auerbach]

Perhaps I expressed myself imperfectly in my prior note to which you 
replied.

My initial purpose when I engaged in this thread was merely to express a 
warning that one should not unquestionably accept the phrase "public 
internet" as having one and only one meaning; that the expressions of 
net neutrality couched in terms of the "public internet" may be more 
constrictive than many of us hope.

I remain unconvinced that those who wrote the Google/Verizon statement 
were necessarily using that phrase in the broad scope that is often 
given to that phrase by some people here.

In my follow-up I noted that the deeper question of who gets the power 
to control of the many ways in which the net (or more specifically, 
network routers) may handle packets.

Given that I daily deal with the technical nuts-and-bolts of the 
internet at the deepest levels I perceive the concrete reality of the 
mechanisms used to classify different packets and given them different 
queue priorities or send them down different paths.  So I daily face 
concrete questions regarding who has the authority to manipulate these 
mechanisms.

I recognize, and agree with you, that many of us, particularly many of 
us who live in the US, have a strong individualistic point of view. 
That is quite true.  It is neither right nor wrong, it simply is.

I suggested in my prior email that the even in highly consensus-driven 
social systems we ought to govern the internet in a way that leaves open 
the door to be different.

In other words, those who wish to be individualists ought to be able to 
use the internet in the way they see fit and not be coerced into 
constrained channels.  (Such people may feel social repercussions as a 
result of their choice; I'm saying is that there ought to be no *legal* 
barrier.)

It was never my intention to suggest that groups of people ought not to 
be free to act in concert or to delegate choices as to network 
neutrality (or non-neutrality) to larger groups, such as governmental 
bodies, unions, or associations.  It is my own feeling that most people 
on the internet - users - will chose that course either through explicit 
choice or by silently accepting such a regime.

The key, however, is that it be clear that the authority for such 
collective action or governance derives from the voluntary, and 
alterable, choices of the members, the individuals.

This notion is nothing new - It is the idea underlying many modern 
democratic societies.  In the language used in the latter 1700's the 
phrase for this was "consent of the governed".

The reason the internet has grown is that it does not (at least until 
recently) constrain innovation at the edges.  Groups do not innovate - 
rather innovation begins with an act by an individual making a choice to 
do something differently than others are doing.

It would be sad if we outlawed innovation on the internet.  And one of 
the ways that innovation may occur is when people are given the means to 
take control of the ways that their internet packets are handled as 
those packets cross all or part of the net.

As usual my touchstone on this is my "First Law of the Internet":

First Law of the Internet
http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000059.html

+ Every person shall be free to use the Internet in any way
   that is privately beneficial without being publicly
   detrimental.

    - The burden of demonstrating public detriment shall
      be on those who wish to prevent the private use.

        - Such a demonstration shall require clear and
          convincing evidence of public detriment.

    - The public detriment must be of such degree and extent
      as to justify the suppression of the private activity.

	--karl--
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