Proposed rule changes would tangle the Web

PROPOSED RULE CHANGES WOULD TANGLE THE WEB
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun 5/9, AUTHOR: Michael Socolow, University of Maine]
[Commentary] Why should you care about the net neutrality provisions in pending telecom bills in Congress? Why should you care, if your Internet fee isn't altered? Or if your Web surfing will (possibly) be only minimally disrupted? You should care because any corporate restriction on information gathering directly counters the original purpose of the World Wide Web. The proposed new rules have received surprisingly sparse media coverage. The new laws have economic, political and social ramifications. There are several explanations for the silence. The most probable is simply that because the laws have strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, they do not appear particularly newsworthy. The history of American telecommunications regulation does not offer a promising model for the future of net neutrality. In the late 1800s, Congress approved of Western Union, America's telegraph monopoly, censoring the Associated Press. The 1934 Communications Act resulted in political discussion over the national airwaves being tightly moderated by CBS and NBC. Most telecom laws are sold to the public as the "natural evolution" of communications technology. Yet there is no truly natural evolution to our telecommunications laws. Only very rarely is regulation completely ordained by physics or technological limits. More commonly, it emerges from the political process. This is news to many Americans unaware of their own media history. Many people believe the Internet's decentralized structure guarantees that no company or oligopoly could control it. Internet censorship - whether by corporate or state interests - simply sounds impossible. Yet not only is it theoretically possible, but the history of telecommunications regulation tells us it is probable. By the time the telecoms start changing what you see on your screen, it will be too late to complain.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.internet09may09,0,4...

See also --
* Tech Allies Split On 'Net Neutrality'
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-KFJT1147205296597.html