Legal Journals

From Net Neutrality to Internet for Everyone

Network Neutrality first surfaced as a reaction to what many activists perceived as aggressive moves by telcos to create a “tiered Internet”. Essentially the movement was a defensive one, a safeguarding of the status quo. Now the concept of Net Neutrality seems to be expanding.

Internet for Everyone bills itself as:

a national initiative of public interest, civic and industry groups that are working to see that the Internet continues to drive U.S. economic growth and prosperity.

Backed by Internet luminaries such as Yochai Benkler, Lawrence Lessig, and Johnathan Zittrain, Internet for Everyone is getting prominent play on the Save the Internet, the flagship site of the Net Neutrality movement.

Internet for Everyone’s core principles are oriented around access:

Every home, business and civic institution in America must have access to a high-speed, world-class communications infrastructure.

It is no secret that America’s broadband infrastructure lags behind those of many of our economic competitors. With Save the Internet tying the growth of advanced broadband access to Net Neutrality, how will telcos respond?

If they’re smart, they’ll respond by delivering faster, more robust access, rather than more whitewash about how great America’s broadband market is, and how wonderful the next (coming soon!) generation of broadband will be.

Image Credit

A cropped version of Suspended bridge by Tanakawho is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Full post as published by Tech Law Forum on July 02, 2008 (boomark / email).