Internet has to stay open, says Cerf

INTERNET HAS TO STAY OPEN, SAYS CERF
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
Any threat to open access to the Internet would be “a hazard to innovation” and a deterrent to investment, one of the founding fathers of the Internet has warned. Vint Cerf, Google’s vice-president and chief Internet evangelist, said that the Internet’s capacity to cope with an ever-growing number of users and amount of content carried over the network was a lesser issue than security, stability, reliability and privacy. “The most important thing is to make sure we have a secure and stable network. There are ways to attack the system which we need to defend against,” he said. Weighing into the debate about “net neutrality”, Mr Cerf said he hoped it was more likely that the Internet would remain open than that broadband providers would move to block applications that use large amounts of bandwidth or discriminate between content providers. However, he warned: “If we ever move into a regime where the providers of basic Internet services have control over what users or entrepreneurs can put on the network then I see a potential hazard to innovation.” He urged regulators around the world to recognize “the importance of keeping the network open and generally neutral, and allowing the entrepreneurs to try out their ideas”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fc7d2cb8-5725-11dc-9a3a-0000779fd2ac.html
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