Battle for the Web

BATTLE FOR THE WEB
[SOURCE: Toronto Star, AUTHOR: Tyler Hamilton]
Tim Berners-Lee, chief architect of the World Wide Web, says his world-changing invention would no longer be an "open information space" if broadband providers abandoned the principle of Net neutrality. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Berners-Lee said he's "very concerned" about talk from major North America phone and cable giants about their desire to collect so-called Web tolls from content suppliers and e-commerce companies that want assured access to broadband subscribers. "It stops being the Net if a supplier of downloaded video pays to connect to a particular set of consumers who are connected to a particular cable company. It would no longer be an open information space," Berners-Lee said. "The whole point of the Web is when you arrive it's more or less the same for everybody. That integrity is really essential. ... I'm very concerned." His comments come as a major public-policy debate on net neutrality rages in the United States and, in Canada, is just beginning to heat up.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A...