Network Neutrality is Essential to a Democratic and Dynamic Internet

NETWORK NEUTRALITY IS ESSENTIAL TO A DEMOCRATIC AND DYNAMIC INTERNET
[SOURCE: HearUsNow.org, AUTHOR: Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America]
[Commentary] A recent blog from the Center for Digital Democracy attacked the broad coalition fighting for network neutrality and called on public interest advocates to change their focus on Internet policy. This proposed change would be a huge mistake for public interest advocates fighting to promote consumer and citizen interests. Protecting consumers and citizens from abuse by the commercial sector and promoting consumer sovereignty and democratic discourse are interrelated, but distinct objectives. Both are essential for a vibrant and innovative online economy and public sphere. And consumer advocates must be vigilant about both. The suggestion that a neutral network would be “open in name only” rests on a fundamental failure to understand what is happening on the 21st century Internet, while projecting the evils of the twentieth century broadcast media model into an entirely different communications space where it just does not fit. Network neutrality/open access is critical because it ensures that consumers and citizens can easily escape from the walled-gardens and gated-communities that the cable and telephone companies like to build. And the world they escape into is a communicative space that is more varied and vibrant than any that has ever existed, or had even been contemplated. The communicative space created by network neutrality/open access combined with the Internet’s “end-to-end” principle is varied and raucous primarily because the production of content by people (not corporations) dominates in cyberspace, but also because the ease of entry on a neutral, digital network ensures a continuous flow of new commercial content and innovative applications.
http://www.consumersunion.org/blogs/hun/2007/06/network_neutrality_is_es...