Vint Cerf Speaking Out on Internet Neutrality

penciling_in writes "CircleID has reported on a U.S. congress hearing held on November 9th, where "significant focus was projected on 'network neutrality' and a new telecommunications bill affecting the Internet. 'This bill could fundamentally alter the fabulously successful end-to-end Internet,' says Alan Davidson in a related post on Google blog." Vint Cerf was not able to testify because of the Presidential Medal of Freedom award ceremony at the White House, but submitted a letter: "The remarkable social impact and economic success of the Internet is in many ways directly attributable to the architectural characteristics that were part of its design. The Internet was designed with no gatekeepers over new content or services. The Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control. By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform for innovation. This has led to an explosion of offerings - from VOIP to 802.11x wi-fi to blogging - that might never have evolved had central control of the network been required by design." CircleID post includes full text of the letter."

Comments

Information wants to be free

[thexgodfather]

Information wants to be free and should not be regulated by the government... no one wants censored porn RIGHT! Seriously though with out regulation how can we get rid of all the spyware/adware out there?? Without regulation there is anarchy, so minimal regulation is they key...

Re:What's a Vint Cerf?

[minus_273]

"current chairman of ICANN."

What? you mean the same unilateral american imerialist hegemony that the EU and UN want to replace with a multilateral international cosensus organization based on sensitivity to the needs of China?

Re:What's a Vint Cerf?

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

So basically, like RMS, he's a "has been" icon who no one really listens to?