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Abstract The issue of internet neutrality is murkily defined by
geeky terminology so poorly understood that the same phrases are used by
political adversaries. The internet is an agreement, not a thing. It is
a designed and engineered environment, however, so the agreement, to
exchange data packets using several protocols, can easily be changed. In
that sense, while the internet itself seems to be scaling ever larger
without breaking physically, the terms of the agreement that determine
its nature, the protocols, can be changed depending on who's in charge.
Code is law.
While the telecom industry likes to talk about needing tiers of service
for reliable transmission of NFL games live on the Internet, the danger
is in the consequent need to examine data packets. Then the Internet
will no longer be stupid, treating all packets the same. It will be
smart. It will be able to tell one packet from the next. Then the
question becomes, who or what decides what to do with that packet? On
what basis is the decision made? The who could be a legislature or a
company or a librarian or a bureaucrat. The what could be an algorithm,
an automated online robot, programmed by that bureaucrat. In either
case, what is the difference between a filter and a censor?
If the Internet stays stupid, if it is merely a bit pipe, if it is
neutral to the content of data packets, if it gives them all equal
priority, then the civil liberties issues and problems will be located
where they should be and always have been, in our institutions and homes
and workplaces. If the Internet is not neutral, then either librarians
should be very afraid or an alternate agreement, a "darknet", might
develop using new protocols.
On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow
who points.
- Virginia Woolf
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overview
What is the problem?
What makes it a problem?
What are the alternative solutions?
What should libraries do?
Latest news on the U.S. legal battle
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key ideas
the Internet is stupid
hyperlinks subvert hierarchy
anything that can be digitized will be digitized |
