[pp.int.general] Paying Creators! ISPs Seem to Have Lost Net Neutrality?

[Pat Maechler aka Valio]

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM, Josef Ohlsson Collentine
<josef at collentine.com> wrote:
>
> Time to bring net neutrality up again. ISPs have recently been considered
> responsible for what their customers do. "Don't blame the messenger" doesn't
> seem to apply anymore. What happened to 'Mere conduit'?
> Netherlands is showing the way with their recent support for Net
> Neutrality http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13886440 In Italy they are
> moving in the opposite way with suppressing free speech with their "Internet
> kill act". Seems it's very hard for ISPs to stay neutral in this fight and I
> like that some take an active stance for supporting creativity and projects
> by the help of a system like Flattr.
> http://blog.flattr.net/2011/06/flattr-teams-up-with-a-major-broadband-provider-in-sweden/

I think the Flattr-Telenor-thing is good news, but has nothing really
to do with net neutrality IMO.
Please do NOT mix those up in general.
Net neutrality would be foremost a tool to fight against the
fragmentation of the net by economic interests of ISPs.
If you can use skype on your UMTS mobile, would you still use the
usual network operator?
Those ISPs that are well established are likely not so keen on net neutrality.

I agree: There are some connections, between net neutrality and
"blaming the messenger"
i.e. those ISPs that might be interested to favor certain protocols
might not be so opposed to Deep Packet Inspection for net censorship
as well, as the hardware is a market entrance barrier and if it's for
"cleaning the web" they might even ask governments for revenues there.
Still these issues should in general be discussed separately.

-pat