Tim B-L on 'net neutrality'

Tim Berners-Lee, as some of you know, is my hero. If I were making a list of people who allz on their own have created change, great change, in the world as we know it, he'd be on the list. Seems to be a nice guy too.

Back last month, timbl commented in his blog about Neutrality of the Net.

Among other things, he says,

When I was a child, I was impressed by the fact that the installation fee for a telephone was everywhere the same in the UK, whether you lived in a city or on a mountain, just as the same stamp would get a letter to either place.

To actually design legislation which allows creative interconnections between different service providers, but ensures neutrality of the Net as a whole may be a difficult task. It is a very important one. The US should do it now, and, if it turns out to be the only way, be as draconian as to require financial isolation between IP providers and businesses in other layers.

The Internet is increasingly becoming the dominant medium binding us. The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.

Hear, hear.