Presidential Candidates on Net Neutrality

19-Aug-08 at 2:17 AM
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As that I consider Net Neutrality a pretty big deal these days and feel that it is most certainly at-risk I decided to share what each presidential candidate says about Net Neutrality.

From Johnmccain.com

"John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like “net-neutrality,” but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices."

From Barackobama.com

"It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. "

It's not very often you see political statements as cut and dried as these.

I doubt this issue will get much air time during the debates this fall, and certainly it shouldn't be the sole basis of anyone's decision, but to me this is a pivotal issue and one that has implications that will echo across the nation for years to come.

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But of course, McCain does not believe in neutrality. He is old school white guy golf and country club hogwash. Which is a dying breed.

Good post.

The more I read about Obama's positions, the more I respect the man. Unfortunately, he is going to scare the shite out of all the 'oldboy networks' who will pull out all stops to defeat him. I sincerely wish the dems would realise this, get off their high intellectual rhetoric horse and start counterattacking with some soundbites. That's what the average John Q. Public seems to like about McCain. Apart from the fact that he has less melanin than Barack, that is

I've not heard this term "Net Neutrality". What does it mean?

Net Neutrality is the idea that the government forces Internet Service Providers (ISP) to treat every bit of information traveling through it's pipes as equal. I'll explain: By analizing how packets line up it's fairly easy to figure out what anyone is doing on the internet. Surfing on internet explorer shows up differently than downloading a torrent, or watching youtube. Some of these acts could be considered legally questionable, like downloading a movie through a torrent, while others may simply cut into the ISP's bottom line. For example some ISP's offer a Voice Over IP service which is essentially a phone line over the internet, it's cheap phone. Skype is a free service that also offers one of the best VoIP services out there for pennies an hour. Naturally ISP's don't want their users using Skype, they want them to pay the extra $5.00 a month or whatever to use their VoIP service, so they edit the bandwidth, skype doesn't run as smoothly or doesn't run at all.

As the internet grows and develops into another medium to generate money, the ISP's are going to consolidate their hold over certain parts of it. If network neutrality bills don't start to be enacted and clarified then large companies will start to carve up what you can and can't do into little revenue generating chunks until your internet choices look like a brochure for cable channels.

Hope that answers your question, if you have any more, don't hesitate to ask.

That explains it very well, thank you. In general, I am against government regulation of business in any form. But as you paint the picture here, it seems that if ISPs are trying to choke the freedom of choice that is currently available on the Net for free, then legislation may be warranted. I will have to research the topic more to form an informed opinion. Thanks again!

Presidential Candidates on Net Neutrality

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