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Network Neutrality Defenders Quietly Backing Off?
SteveOHT writes "Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers. The story claims that Microsoft, Yahoo, and Amazon have quietly withdrawn from a coalition of companies and groups backing network neutrality (the coalition is not named), though Amazon's name is reportedly once again listed on the coalition's Web site. Google has already responded, calling the WSJ story "confused" and explaining that they're only talking about edge caching, and remain as committed as ever to network neutrality. The blogosphere is alight with the debate.
It's a contradiction to buy your way into the fast lane with ISP's and then say you want equality for all. I say...the best way to maintain neutrality is for everyone to do nothing except for all ISP's to give all users faster speeds. Any measure of fairness is had at the user level and NOT with content providers or website owners. The best things that site owners could ever do is to maintain the health of their sites, make them easier to use, and make them more desirable to use. ANY manipulation if favor of ANY site at the ISP level defies the very purpose of NN.