

Net Neutrality Simplified - kswinslow

What Is Net Neutrality?<p>Currently, as I am writing this, Net Neutrality is the guiding principle which preserves the open and free Internet. With this principle intact, everyone is on the same level playing field. While certain cable and phone companies own the “pipes” that connect users to the Internet, they cannot control usage of these pipes. Everyone has equal access to websites, and similarly, every website has the same freedoms granted to the variety, and the amount, of content that they can post. However, these companies think they should have the right to restrict access to these pipes. They think that they should be able to make users pay more for accessing certain kinds of content, and that websites should pay more to have a certain degree of quality and speed.<p>Negative Impacts<p>1.	Price Hikes:<p>Doing away with Net Neutrality would cause ‘double-dipping’ to occur; users would first have to pay for access, and then a second time for what they are going to access. On top of that, While ISPs believe they have the authority to charge websites for bandwidth use, in retrospect this will probably just result in more costs being added to the consumers once again. Costs charged to websites can in turn be passed along to users in the form of price hikes or new charges to view specific content.<p>2.	Discourages Innovation:<p>Net Neutrality ensures that anyone can start small and dream big when it comes to creating the next new innovative website, without having to face insurmountable hurdles and costly barriers to entry. For once, the Internet is actually a medium through which a competitive model can achieve success and work. Doing away with Net Neutrality would completely destroy this opportunity for a medium to ever effectively and efficiently promote clean competition. The beauty of the Internet is that anyone can find success in it. Anyone can start a website, which in turn anyone can view.
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jones1618
I like your observation about double-dipping. It's true: If Netflix pays more
for bandwidth they will turn around and charge you more. Also, more subtly, if
your Internet provider is profiting from a premium content pipeline, they have
every incentive to reclassify other content as premium. In other words, today
Netflix, tomorrow Flickr, DropBox and Github.

Ironically, ISPs also say Net Neutrality crushes their ability to innovate
i.e. maximize their leverage and profits. But, hey, that's our choice as a
society: Do we craft regulation that maximizes profits for the pipelines or
innovation for content makers?

