Network Neutrality: Much Ado About Nothing
Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to construct basic “network neutrality” legislation designed to prevent ISP’s from favoring some content over other content.
Last November, The CATO Institute put out a 36-page policy analysis discussing the details of Net Neutrality and it’s unnecessity. From page 3:
Network owners who try to profit from discriminatory practices will encounter stiff resistance from an army of tech-savvy users who rapidly develop and disseminate countermeasures and workarounds. Network owners will find that they lack the leverage to effectively control the behavior of online firms and users and that efforts to limit the activities of their own customers are financial and publicrelations disasters. Network owners who try to construct a “walled garden” of proprietary applications and content are likely to be similarly disappointed, as proprietary services fail to keep pace with the open Internet. ISPs are likely to respect network neutrality not because they want to but because economic and technological constraints leave them little choice.
Regulations, by definition, are restrictions on freedom. We cannot maintain a free Internet by letting a government agency restrict it’s use, however noble it’s intention sounds. It is more “free” to let markets determine themselves, than to let the FCC get a taste of Internet regulation.
Cross-posted and comments welcome at The Rocket's Red Glare.
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