Information Control as "Net Neutrality"

For John, BLUF:  Information wants to be free.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Over at The Boston Globe the Tech Guru, Mr Hiawatha Bray, on Thursday, gave us a heads up about efforts to control the Internet, under the guise of "net neutrality".

The Headline is "Should free data be a crime?"  The sub-headline, "Push for Net neutrality could backfire".

I was so busy hunting down new gadgets at last week’s International CES in Las Vegas that I missed out on the government’s latest bid to “improve” the Internet.

Tom Wheeler, who is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, dropped by the convention to say the government will soon regulate the Net under a law drafted in the 1930s to oversee telephone companies.

It’s part of the long-running effort to guarantee Net neutrality, the principle that all data on the Internet must be treated exactly alike.

But Net neutrality could kill off a consumer-friendly idea called sponsored data, which is popular in the developing world but is just catching on in the States.

Read the whole thing, it is short.  And it should make you nervous.

Regards  —  Cliff