Network Neutrality — Without Regulation

boyko.at.netqos writes "Timothy B. Lee (no relation to Tim Berners-Lee), a frequent contributor to Ars Technica and Techdirt, has recently written 'The Durable Internet,' a paper published by the libertarian-leaning CATO institute. In it, Lee argues that because a neutral network works better than a non-neutral one, the Internet's open-ended architecture is not likely to vanish, despite the fears of net neutrality proponents, (and despite the wishes of net neutrality opponents.) For that reason, perhaps network neutrality legislation isn't necessary — or even desirable — from an open-networks perspective. In addition to the paper, Network Performance Daily has an interview and podcast with Tim Lee, and Lee addresses counter-arguments with a blog posting for Technology Liberation Front."

Comments

In Other News...

[dcollins]

Another paper by the libertarian-leaning CATO institute also said this: Banks, financial lenders, and mortgage providers "work better" if they are responsible and provide only secure financial investments, and are therefore not likely to enter a worldwide financial meltdown. For that reason, financial oversight legislation is neither necessary nor desirable. QED.

Re:In Other News...

[Progoth]

Or, more likely.....

These very same banks were required, by regulation, to provide bad loans.

And also....

These loans were mostly all bought by Freddie and Fannie, with the assumption that no matter how bad their decisions were, the government would spend any amount of taxpayer money to keep these quasi-private companies alive. Funny how that works. Perhaps the government shouldn't be in the mortgage business.

Re:In Other News...

[UdoKeir]

These very same banks were required, by regulation, to provide bad loans.

Except that they weren't. Stop repeating these republican blogosphere lies.

Re:In Other News...

[Rycross]

No it didn't. It said that the location or race of that the person could no longer be considered. That is, banks could no longer red-line (look it up). They could still deny people based on their credit and income. See the wikipedia article on the CRA. The criticisms mostly suggest that the CRA had nothing to do with the crisis. At best, they could point out innuendo (the CRA made banks *feel* like they had to do sub-prime lending) rather than a direct causal link.

human nature

[janeuner]

As long as politicians are involved with some having more sway than others, you can expect them to abuse their position in the name of greed. It's simple human nature. Say all you want about how government will police itself or that the market will sort itself out. However, reality has shown us time and time again that this isn't the case.

Internet service in Ontario

[Digital_Quartz]

Here in Ontario, I can get high-speed internet from:

• Rogers (cable), which blocks ports, throttles BitTorrent, VPN, and any encrypted traffic. Rogers also has some stupid "web search on typo" system which breaks DNS.
• Bell (DSL), which throttles BitTorrent.
• Many small third party DSL providers, which don't throttle, but Bell controls the last mile for all DSL, and throttles for them.

So, it's a nice theory, but Ontario (and most of eastern Canada) disproves it nicely.

Re:human nature

[janeuner]

I would imply that they [ethics regulations + oversight] are largely ineffective.

CATO Institute: Corporate Anarchists

[Doc Ruby]

The CATO Institute is "libertarian" the way that "libertarian" is "corporate anarchist". They oppose people creating governments to protect their rights, because those governments get in the way of corporate power to exploit those people.