Net Neutrality
I threw out a brief comment on some blog I found while reading random blogs, and there I found a link to a neat video on YouTube from the Fiber to the Home Council. I love the first sentence, “The internet is not a cloud.” It can be seen here.
I also recommend reading “Net Neutrality vs. Internet Freedom” from Alex Epstein at Capitalism Magazine (Epstein also writes for the Ayn Rand Institute). Here’s a great quote from the article:
Because the Internet is based on voluntary association, no one can properly compel others for their ad space, bandwidth, publicity–or data prioritization. Those who create these values have the right to use and profit from them as they see fit. Google has no more right to demand that Verizon be “neutral” with its network than Verizon has a right to demand that Google be “neutral” with its coveted advertising space.
Most of the net neutrality criticism I read does not go much deeper into the issue than saying that government regulation doesn’t work or saying that there have to be “incentives” if we want to make the internet better. Those statements are correct, but people eventually have to explain why government regulation doesn’t work and why people are more productive when they can keep what they earn. That’s why I think that freedom and individual rights is so essential to the net neutrality debate, and Epstein’s article addresses those issues.
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