Some time ago, I wrote about the squabbling between Google and other content providers and the telecoms that provide Internet bandwidth. Over the past two years, the content providers had been seeking legislative imposition of ‘net neutrality’ by which telecoms would be forced to carry bloated content under the same terms as the odd bits and bytes generated by the average family.
I’ve long argued that Congress should not get involved because the parties themselves would work it out – precisely because there’s too much money at stake and who wants government setting standards anyway?
Low and behold, that’s apparently what’s happening. From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal we learn that Google has opened talks with telcoms about buying preferred service. Microsoft and Yahoo have both dropped out of the net neutrality coalition and leading advocates have quietly been reconsidering their positions. Lawrence Lessig, for instance, is one of Hope ‘n Change’s chief technology advisors and heretofore an advocate of net neutrality:
But some of those who advise the new president on technology have changed their view on network neutrality. Stanford’s Mr. Lessig, for one, has softened his opposition to variable service tiers. At a conference, he argued that carriers won’t become kingmakers so long as the faster service at a higher price is available to anyone willing to pay it.
“There are good reasons to be able to prioritize traffic,” Mr. Lessig said later in an interview. “If everyone had to pay the same rates for postal service, than you wouldn’t be able to differentiate between sending a greeting card to your grandma versus sending an overnight letter to your lawyer.”
Different levels of service? What a novel concept.
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