Corporate interests are trying to infiltrate their way into Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. If one of these attempts succeeds it will spell the end of internet Privacy, and demolish its neutrality.
As part of Obama’s pledge to bring broadband connectivity to rural America, US senator Dianne Feinstein is pushing a proposal that calls for “Network Monitoring” in an effort to curb child pornography and copyright infringement. This proposal would basically allow ISPs to throttle network traffic and rifle through your packets in search of “evil”. The problem is that network monitoring has nothing to do with content filtering, remember the Comcast story? According to Public Knowledge, the Motion Picture Association of America is behind Feinstein's language. And as Cade Metz of The Register puts it, “the ‘network management’ bit sounds like ISP speak”.
This proposal reeks of greed and medieval intents, and reminds me that there was a time when Microsoft was considered an unbeatable monopoly until the smart and innovative guys from Google found a way to compete. Feinstein’s amendment deserves to be monitored and scrutinized until it dies quietly in some US senate hallway. Every netizen knows that privacy and net neutrality are at the heart of the Internet phenomenon. It should also be abundantly clear by now that copyright infringement should be countered by creative business thinking and not pointless litigation. Look no further than South Park Studios or Hulu to catch my drift.
Long live the free market and competition.
This proposal reeks of greed and medieval intents, and reminds me that there was a time when Microsoft was considered an unbeatable monopoly until the smart and innovative guys from Google found a way to compete. Feinstein’s amendment deserves to be monitored and scrutinized until it dies quietly in some US senate hallway. Every netizen knows that privacy and net neutrality are at the heart of the Internet phenomenon. It should also be abundantly clear by now that copyright infringement should be countered by creative business thinking and not pointless litigation. Look no further than South Park Studios or Hulu to catch my drift.
Long live the free market and competition.
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