Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality has been in the news lately thanks to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently adding to 2 principles to the existing 4. Net Neutrality, in general, is the idea that all data traveling over the internet should be treated equal. Opponents, including major internet providers AT&T and Verizon, say allowing some bandwidth hogging application, such as YouTube, degrade the experience for everyone else. Proponents say Net Neutrality is necessary for innovation.

The big question is Why Should We Care? The reason is innovation. If the Net were restricted services such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many more useful items may never have gotten off the ground. I think the best compromise is to allow the carriers to do as they please with their networks as long as they:

• Provide 100% full disclosure of what they are doing
• Extremely stiff penalties are in place for anything less than full disclosure
• The disclosures need to be posted on their website with a link as large as the main services they offer
• The disclosure needs be written in plain English